Futurama Bebop
by literacy123
Summary: When Mom's delivery company expands and seizes control of the delivery industry the Planet Express team must turn to bounty hunting to make ends meet. This story follows their tireless pursuit of bounties and what they'll do to make a buck.
1. Humble Beginnings

**I've found that writing one story is a little monotonous so I've decided to start a side project of the sorts- this story. This isn't a crossover, but I will draw some inspiration from Cowboy Bebop. It is an alternate universe fic and I need to explain the backstory just a bit (what I don't reveal shall be revealed later in the story). Here's what you need to know…**

**Fry came to the future as usual, but managed to evade Leela completely after running out of Applied Cryogenics (he also doesn't run into Bender), he met Farnsworth who owns a bounty hunting company (Still known as the Planet Express- this will be explained later). Farnsworth gave him a job as a bounty hunter where Fry put his video game skills to good use- hunting down people with a bounty on their head. While Fry was doing that Leela was fired for losing him. She decided that she should devote the rest of her life to tracking down Fry and set out after him (You'll be introduced to the other characters such as Bender, Amy, etc. as the story progresses) (It's a good Idea to assume that most of the stuff that happened after the first episode didn't happen, although I'll get to a lot of it).**

_**I don't own Futurama or Cowboy Bebop.**_

**With that out of the way I can begin.**

Futurama Bebop Episode 1: Humble Beginnings

Fry stared deeply into the black coffee on the table in front of him. His own reflection revealed so much, yet so little. Who was he? Why was he here? To make a quick buck off of some criminal, or to be a hero- be someone, something he never could be back in 1999. He took a sip of the coffee and looked across the street. There, leaning against the wall of a two story apartment building was his target. A black market dealer whose name he'd completely forgotten. The café he was seated in sat directly across the street from the crack house where the man usually operated. Fry knew this guy was dangerous when he was drugged up, but he seemed calm for the moment. Fry's phone vibrated in his pocket and he answered it, his nephew's face stared back at him, "What do you want?", the old man shouted angrily.

"You called me Professor."

"Huhwa?"

"I didn't call you… you called me."

"Oh, so I did. Have you located Mendeleev?"

"Who is that?", Fry asked, trying to recall who the professor was referring to.

"The extremely dangerous criminal you're after, you babbling idiot!"

"Oh, _him?_ I found him a few minutes ago, but I thought I'd get some coffee first."

"Get that coffee to go, we're out of cash and my arthritis medication isn't going to pay for itself."

"Okay, he doesn't look too tough."

Fry turned the phone off and refocused on the man across the street, "Alright… I think I brought ammunition this time."

Fry patted his jacket's pocket to make sure he had extra ammunition stowed away if he needed it. He reached into his jacket and pulled a Beretta from the inside pocket; he'd tried future guns, but found that nothing matched the simplicity and user-friendly interface of a weapon from his own time. The fact that owning the gun made him feel like a complete badass only served as icing on the cake to the pizza delivery boy turned bounty hunter. He checked that the magazine had bullets in it; it'd taken him another bad experience to figure out that the magazines don't come loaded. He gulped down the last of his coffee and laid a few bills at his spot. He pushed his chair back, cocked the pistol, and left the café. He tried to keep the gun concealed, but Fry and being nondescript don't go together well, anyone within a thirty meter radius was able to tell that the red haired boy was packing. The man's posture straightened and he turned towards Fry- black hair, tall, caucasian- he matched the description well enough for Fry to continue his approach. Pedestrians began to shuffle nervously away from the two men. Fry realized his cover was blown and gave up on hiding the gun, "Your name Mendeleev?"

"Possibly", the man slowly let his right hand creep behind his back; if Fry wasn't so oblivious to anything other than the exceedingly obvious he might have noticed.

"Well if you aren't him you should say so, so I can go back to lunch."

The man paused for a moment, wondering if Fry was being serious, "So if I said I wasn't Mendeleev you'd go away?"

"Possibly", Fry answered sarcastically. He tightened his grip on his pistol and wiped the sweat from his brow with his the sleeve of his free arm.

"That's a risk I can't take." The man's expression stiffened as his fingers wrapped around the laser pistol tucked in his belt.

"What's the risk, if you say no I go awa-… ", Fry's brain caught up with what the man meant as he pulled the concealed weapon from its hiding place. Fry dove into a nearby alley as the man leveled his gun and fired off a chain of shots.

"God Dammit!" Fry inched his way towards the edge of the building and peeked around to get a look at the target. His face was greeted by another volley of shots. He quickly ducked back into the alley before popping out to shoot back. He leapt out into the open, trained his weapon on the man and leveled the barrel. He squeezed his fingers around the trigger and nothing happened. He squeezed again, still nothing. He rolled behind a mailbox as the man fired at him again. That's when Fry realize the safety was still on, he smacked himself in the forehead and flipped the switch to fire. As he did so he heard the sound of a metal magazine clanging to the ground. He stood up and pointed his gun at the drug dealer yet another time, this time when his fingers closed around the trigger the mussel flashed and a bullet flew from the depths of the gun. Evidently Mendeleev wasn't expecting Fry to actually shoot back (since he hadn't yet) and he didn't duck or anything. The projectile whizzed through the air and sliced through the drug dealer's left shoulder. He stumbled backwards and dropped his handgun. Fry moved in after him, but the man spun on his heels and took off down the street. Fry tucked the Beretta into his jacket and took off after his target. He took his phone from his pocket and dialed his nephew, "Farnsworth, he's headed down twenty-second street."

"He got away?"

"Yes, he started shooting and I hit him and then he ran. Just cut him off before he gets to the spaceport."

Farnsworth's face disappeared and Fry slide the phone back into his pocket. Mendeleev was still ahead of him by a little less than five meters. He shoved his way through a crowd and Fry followed suite, muttering apologies as he pushed pedestrians to the ground in an attempt to keep up with the deranged man. Fry was losing ground quickly and he knew it, "Come on Professor."

Mendeleev rounded a corner and briefly disappeared from view. Fry pushed himself to go faster, as he rounded the corner a fist slammed into his gut and he doubled over in pain. He fell to his knee and groaned. Fry looked up at his attacker, but the man was already fleeing. Fry's hopes began to fade as the man took off again, leaving Fry in his wake.

"No, no, no!", Fry panicked, he pulled himself to his feet and stumbled after the mad man. It was obvious he wasn't going to catch him, but Fry wasn't one to give up on something he set his mind to. Suddenly an electric-mucus colored blur slammed into the ground in front of the deranged man. The Planet Express Ship slid along the ground, uprooting sidewalk and asphalt as it slid. It slammed into Mendeleev and sent him flying through the air; he crashed through the window of a nearby shop. Fry hobbled out of the way of the skidding ship and climbed through the broken window. Mendeleev lay sprawled across the floor on a pile of glass shards. Fry looked him over- he was clearly breathing- Fry breathed a sigh of relief, at least he'd get paid for this. The door on the side of the Planet Express ship opened and his nephew poked his head out of the opening, "Did we get him?"

"Yes", Fry smiled and clicked a pair of handcuffs into place on their targets' hands, "You take him to the station, I'm going to enjoy a cup of coffee and maybe a victory cigar."

Fry helped get the criminal on board the ship and left his nephew to take the man in; given that the crackpot would be able to remember where the police station was. Fry took his time walking back to the quite little coffee shop- after all he'd just been in a chase and a shootout. He hummed familiar old tune as he went, kicking every stone he passed, "Damn I'm lonely." The future was awesome with all of its technology and gadgets, but he still missed the twentieth century and his family. He felt so detached from the professor, even if the scientist was his family; the old man treated him more like a trained monkey than an uncle. All Fry really wanted was a friend, but he found it exceedingly difficult to relate with many people from the future. So far he'd only gotten to know two people, his nephew and that cryogenics worker that was chasing after him, and the latter worried him. He'd seen a brief display of her martial arts skills and that was enough to ensure him that he would meet his demise if they ever got into a fistfight.

He finally arrived at the coffee shop and entered the building, "I'd like a cup of black coffee with sugar."

A girl behind the counter nodded and turned around to begin making his coffee. He took a newspaper off of the counter and placed a five dollar bill in the payment box, and then made his way to the shop's patio. He seated himself and opened the newspaper. The headline read, "Mets only lose by 10!"

He wasn't really interested in that since he didn't really care for sports- not to mention that he couldn't read very well and the paragraph written about the game seemed to stretch the entire front page. He flipped to the comics page and absently stared at the Garfield comic. He couldn't tell what the characters were saying, but it seemed like the loveable orange cat was being scolded for something. His critical analysis of the comic was cut short by the waitress brining him his cup of coffee. He thanked her and paid for the drink, it wasn't until she left and he took a sip of his coffee that he noticed the woman at the other end of the patio glaring at him. One eye, purple hair, Applied Cryogenics coat… it was _her._

"Shit", he took another sip of his coffee and held up the newspaper to hide his face, but he knew she'd already seen him and with any luck, recognized him. He lowered the newspaper just enough so that he could see her; she had already stood up from her seat and was making her way towards him. He slid back violently in his chair and haphazardly threw his cup of coffee at her before sprinting off down the street. She chased after him shouting, "Wait!"

He didn't, he just kept running, trying to put as much distance as possible between him and his one eyed pursuer. He threw a glance over his shoulder, only to see that she was gaining on him- there was no way he was going to outrun her. Then he got an idea, as he passed a corner he stopped and pressed him back flat against the side of the building. He took his gun from his coat and tightened his grip on it. Then she rounded the corner, moving too fast to react to Fry swinging his gun at her head. The butt of his Beretta collided with her forehead with a loud whack and she toppled over, then rolled into the street. He turned to leave her when he spotted a truck headed towards her. It wasn't a hover truck, it was an antique tractor trailer from his time, and it was headed straight at her. He couldn't leave her in the street; he grabbed her by her boots and dragged her out of the street as the truck rolled by, "You owe me", he muttered to his unconscious companion. She stirred slightly and he jumped back, startled. He took his phone from his pocket and dialed his nephew, the old man answered after a few rings, "Yes?"

"Professor, I need you to pick me up."

"Who are you?"

"Your uncle, remember?"

"Oh my yes. You went for a cup of coffee while I took that gentleman to the police station, right?"

"Yes. By the way how did that go?"

"What?"

"Taking him in. Everything go smoothly?"

"Oh my no, I'm being held at gunpoint by his angry customers", Farnsworth panned his phone around so that Fry could see the three thugs that had his nephew surrounded.

"I'm coming professor, don't worry."

"Now I am worried", the old scientist's image disappeared and Fry sighed, he cocked his pistol. Fry looked at the purple haired cryogenics worker and wondered how he'd rescue his nephew carrying an unconscious woman around with him. He patted her pockets looking for anything of use and found a laser pistol tucked away in her coat, it was set to stun- this surprised him a little, but he didn't think much of it. She stirred again; he stuffed the laser pistol into his jacket and took a pair of handcuffs from his pocket. He clicked them into place on her hands as her eye opened. She groaned and rubbed her head, "Ow… I swear to god Brannigan… ", she seemed a little shocked to see the red haired boy still within a thousand meters of her. Then she noticed the handcuffs and her expression hardened.

"Sorry, I don't know if I can trust you yet. The few times we've met you've chased me and tried to stick a chip in my hand."

"So rather than running away you just handcuff me and sit down on the sidewalk next to me?"

"Well you kinda rolled out into the street and almost got hit by a truck."

"Oh… well thanks."

"Your pistol was set on stun… not gonna do much killing with it on that setting."

"I was actually trying to thank you."

"Really?" Fry was a bit surprised by her response; he'd expected a much different answer, "For doing what?"

"Making me realize how little I'd lived in my life, I never even tried looking for my parents until I lost my job at Applied Cryogenics."

"Sorry about that."

Fry stood up; she was being surprisingly cordial for someone who was just cracked in the head. Then he remembered how skilled she was at martial arts and he took a few steps away from her.

"Do you have a job right now?"

"No, I've been living off of my savings."

"Oh, I might be able to get you a job with my nephew. He's an awful pilot and I'm sure he'd love to have someone else fly for him. That is if you can fly."

"Can I fly? Pffff", she waved her hands dismissively, as long as I don't have to parallel park we'll be fine."

"Great… one more thing before I take the cuffs off."

"What?"

"We kinda have to save my nephew from some thugs."

"Fine by me, I wasn't doing anything today anyway."

Fry unlocked her handcuffs and nervously handed her the laser pistol he'd relieved her of a few minutes prior. She changed its setting to kill and checked the charge. Fry watched her with amusement, she was so fluid, like all of this came natural to her. She reacted so coolly to the information he'd just thrown at her. She was clearly a born leader, someone who would be invaluable to him and his nephew in the future… and she was beautiful- that helped. His train of thought was violently derailed by the Planet Express ship soaring overhead; it fired a salvo of shots at them before it smashed into a billboard and then plummeted into the street. The cyclopes took off towards the crash site, it occurred to Fry that he should have asked for her name, but assumed it'd be fine if they were properly introduced after they saved Farnsworth. The cannon on top of the ship was still operational and shot at the duo as they approached the ship. The cyclopes kicked the side door open and stormed the bridge before Fry even reached the ship. When he finally caught up with her she was standing on top of pile of three moaning bodies, a broad grin spread across her face, "It was easier just to take them alive."

Fry chuckled, "That's good, we'll be able to collect their bounty. …I never did catch your name."

She stepped down from the pile of bodies, "Leela, and you are?"

"Fry, Philip J. Fry."

He shook her hand and turned to look for his nephew, but the old man was nowhere to be found, that was until he revealed himself. Farnsworth poked his head out from the bathroom and shouted, "You're hired!"

**Next episode: Leela, Fry and the Professor track a lost animal worth a hefty sum if returned to its 'owner'- Mom.**


	2. Pet Sedimentary

**To my sole reviewer, thank you. For those of you who've seen Bebop, don't worry about Leela exhibiting Faye's characteristics. FYI the first episode took place eight months after Fry came to the future (December 31, 2999). **

Episode 2: Pet Sedimentary

September 18, 3000

Fry took a sip of his beer and turned on the television in the Planet Express lounge. It'd been a while since he and the professor had company so the place wasn't exactly clean. Dirty clothes were strewn about and Leela cringed a little when she entered the room, "When's the last time a health inspector's been here?"

"Never", the professor answered from the couch, "Before Mom forced me to switch businesses I had one of the best bureaucrats ever on my roster."

Leela left the room to retrieve a beer for herself before she joined Fry and Farnsworth on the couch, the news was about to air, and that meant they would learn who the week's big bounty was. She popped the top and took a sip as Morbo began to speak, "Today one of the most elaborate heists in history was pulled off; the victim of this theft- Mom. A malfunctioning bending unit stole one of her most valued assets and took off. He is believed to be hiding out somewhere in New New York, but no one can be sure. The culprit's name is Bender Bending Rodriguez. A three hundred thousand Nixon buck reward is posted for his capture and the safe return of Mom's stolen merchandise. Mom refuses to go into detail on what was stolen, but says it is a living creature- a pet if you will."

Linda giggled then began on the next story, but Farnsworth turned off the television, "There you have it. Off you go", he shooed Fry and Leela out of the room, leaving them with no other choice but to pursue the lead.

"I'll patrol the air, you take the ground", Leela didn't leave Fry with any time to argue, she ran off in the direction of the hangar, leaving Fry to himself. It'd been a while since he'd had anyone boss him around and to be honest he'd missed it a little.

Fry slipped a Nixonbuck into the vending machine and pushed the slurm button. A few short seconds later a can of slurm bounced out of the machine, he picked it up and continued to stroll down the street. He cracked the can open and took a sip of the sweet, cold, cola. His phone vibrated in his pocket and he answered it, "Fry speaking"

"Fry, it's Leela-"

"And you just called to ask if I was busy later?"

"No… ", a few awkward moments passed before she spoke again, "Robots are powered by alcohol so I'd suggest you go into bars to look for the robot, I've been flying over them. I haven't had much luck yet, but maybe you'll do better."

"Okay", Fry replied, heading towards the nearest bar.

Leela chose the next bar she was going to fly over and charted a course for it. She decided that she'd actually go into this bar since flying from bar to bar and staring at the ground was beginning to get even more boring than it sounded. She reached the bar in a few minutes and set the ship down in the parking lot. She descended the ship's staircase and was at the entrance to the bar in a few long strides, it was an obscure little bar, defiantly a place where a robot-on-the-run would stop for his alcohol fix. She was shocked when she spotted Fry sitting at the bar, drink in hand, talking to a robot. The robot was a greyish silver bending unit, since Fry was talking to the robot Leela assumed it wasn't their guy, but then again Fry was an idiot. In the few months she'd known him he'd proven time and time again that he wasn't all too intelligent- forgetting to put fuel in the ship, forgetting his gun, getting distracted –the list went on. She stepped into the bar and cautiously approached him and his robot companion.

"Hello Fry."

He jumped, startled by her sudden appearance, "Oh! Hi Leela…"

Before Fry could say any more the robot stood up and stretched out his manipulator, "Speak of the Devil…"

Leela tilted her head to the side ever so slightly, "I beg your pardon."

"Philip here-"

"Fry", Fry corrected the robot with a swift hand gesture, before he took a sip of his drink.

"Right, Fry here was just telling me all about you."

"Really?", Leela asked, somewhat sarcastically. She took the robot's hand to shake it, "Leela… and you are?"

"Bender Bending Rodriguez, and I'm leaving!"

Before anyone had a chance to react the robot tightened his grip on the woman's hand and hurled her over the bar into the shelf of alcohol that lined the wall behind the bar. She slammed into it with a crash, then fell to the floor with a loud thud. She groaned in pain and scrambled to her feet, but Bender was a step ahead of her. Just as she managed to get back on her feet the robot took Fry by the jacket and threw him on top of her. She pushed Fry off of herself and used the bar for support to help her get back on her feet a second time, Fry was a little slower to recover, but was the first to take off after the robot. Leela stumbled after him, quickly recovering from being knocked over; it'd take more than a malfunctioning bending unit to keep her down. Fry already had his Beretta drawn as the duo exited the bar, he was so energetic and in the moment, nothing like all of the partners that The Order gave her. She cringed at the memories that flooded her mind in regards to The Order. She quickly pushed them to the back of her mind as Fry rounded a corner. She drew her laser pistol as she turned the corner; she was a little surprised to see that Fry and the robot had put some distance on her in the small amount of time they'd been out of sight.

"Let's go already!" The robot shouted as he began to lead the two bounty hunters up an incline that hung over the freeway. Fry increased speed and fired off a few shots at the robot, one skimmed he metallic leg. The robot didn't even break stride, he just looked back at the duo and shouted, "Bite my shiny metal ass!", before he jumped over the overpass into the back seat of a convertible hover car. Another robot was the driver, and it was obvious that the two were working together since the car had stopped so Bender wouldn't miss. _That must have been who he was shouting to_, Leela thought as she caught up with Fry where the robot had jumped off the overpass_._

"Damn", Leela sighed as the car began to accelerate away.

Fry looked at her then grinned- a wicked grin she'd only seen a few times, "He hasn't gotten away yet."

With that he leapt off of the overpass and onto the hood of a passing car. He slid up the windshield and over the roof of the car, he searched franticly for something to grab onto, and as his feet met open air his fingers wrapped around the car's spoiler- thank the divines that spoilers still made you cool. He held on for dear life as the hover car sped up. He glanced around him and spotted the robot's car off to his left. The car he was hanging onto was even getting ready to pass it. As his car overtook the robot's car he swung himself back and forth to pick up enough speed to fling himself onto the robot's car. By the third swing he felt he was ready and let go. For a brief moment he was free, he soared through he air unhindered by Newton and his damn laws, but that ended as he smacked into the side of the car at breakneck speeds. He managed to take hold of one of the side mirrors, Bender was driving now and a red robot sat in the passenger's seat. The robot turned and looked at Fry, "Hey friend, I'm Roberto."

"Uh… hi", Fry didn't know what else to say, he was hanging on for dear life and this robot decided now would be a good time for introductions.

"I'm Fry"

"I think you meant fall."

"No, I'm Fry."

The robot didn't speak again, instead his mechanical arm surged forward, thrusting a knife at Fry, "As in fall to your death!", Roberto laughed and swung at Fry again. Fry was able to get his body out of the way of the robot's continuous attacks, until he swung at Fry's hands. Fry let go of the mirror, and Roberto's knife harmlessly slashed through the air where his hands had been. As the car began to move past him he reached out and grabbed onto the rear passenger side door. It opened and he was flung around like a rag doll as Bender jerked the vehicle about. Fry was repeatedly bashed against the side of the car, but he refused to let go. Roberto lost his patience and took a laser Thompson out from under his seat. He clicked a drum magazine into place on the underside of the gun and opened fire. He fired in long bursts, sometimes emptying a magazine at a time, but he wasn't able to land a hit on the bounty hunter clinging to the back door. Roberto stopped shooting for a few moments and Fry relaxed a little, but that's when the crazed robot pulled out all of the stops. He began firing through the car itself, red hot laser rounds tore through the car's frame and zipped past Fry- it was only a matter of time before one of the shots found its mark. Fry let go, he'd rather plummet to his death than be shot to Swiss cheese. As he fell through the air he reached into his jacket and drew his Beretta, he pointed it at the fleeing hover car and squeezed the trigger a few times, scoring a few hits on the rear bumper and exhaust pipe. Finally he gave in to the falling and allowed himself to relax a little, in a few moments he hit the ground and die a quick painless death. Suddenly, more so than he should have, he collided with something hard. His vision blackened for a moment and then returned- he wasn't dead. He took in his surroundings and realized that he had crashed into the windscreen of the Planet Express ship, not the ground. He smiled through the glass at Leela, who was skillfully piloting the craft. She gave him a half smile, and then pressed a button on her control console. The windscreen slid down and Fry flew into the bridge, Leela quickly re-pressed the button and the windscreen went back up. Fry climbed back to his feet and stood awkwardly behind Leela for a few moments trying to think of what he should say to his rescuer, "Um… Thanks for saving me."

Leela threw a glance over her shoulder, "Don't take it personal, you just happened to be in the way", she grinned to let him know she was only kidding before she refocused her attention on the hover car ahead of them, Fry's few shots had done a number on the car and its exhaust belched thick grey smoke. It began to lose altitude and Leela dropped the Planet Express ship down with it. Finally the car smashed into an asphalt road and skidded for a few meters before coming to a stop, a thick column of smoke indicated where the car had stopped so Leela had no problem locating it in the concrete jungle of New New York. She set the ship down a few hundred meters from the wreck and Fry bolted to the crash site with Leela close on his heels. He drew his gun before he reached the twisted steel wreck that was once a car. In the thick smoke that encompassed the crash site Fry could make out two figures fleeing the scene.

"I'll go after Bender, you nab his pal", Leela commanded taking off after the shape that resembled the bending unit.

Leela broke off from Fry and began closing the gap between her and the criminal robot. He was fast, but not fast enough to outrun her, she'd been the fastest person The Order had ever trained. She mentally scolded herself for letting The Order slip into her thoughts twice in the same day. She pushed The Order into the deep recesses of her subconscious mind and redirected her thoughts to the robot. She was only a few meters behind him now and she reached out to try to grab onto his metallic body. As her fingers skimmed his metal back he panicked, opened a compartment in his chest, and took out a small black animal with three eyes. Its third eye sat on a stalk that protruded from its head. The robot spun his head around, and threw the critter directly into Leela's eye, the instant it touched her head it latched on for dear life. She stumbled backwards and fell onto her back- there went any chance of getting this bounty.

Fry raised his gun and squeezed off a few shots as Roberto rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. Fry quickly followed and found himself in a large crowd, but a robot like Roberto wasn't hard to spot, Fry found him pushing his way through the crowd a few meters ahead of him. Fry raised his Beretta and fired into the air, most of the crowd instinctively dove to the ground or ducked, giving Fry the moment of opportunity he needed, he surged forward and grabbed hold of the robot's left arm. As he did so Roberto turned and thrust a knife into his chest, it slipped between two of Fry's ribs and stopped just before it got to his vital organs. Roberto pushed Fry over and took off, disappearing from sight a few seconds later.

September 21, 3000

(Three Days Later)

Fry groaned and stirred slightly, Leela looked up from her book on caring for strange animals and walked over to the couch were Fry was lying. She'd been taking care of him for the past three days. The knife wound he had was bad, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. She looked down at him, half expecting him to say something stupid, instead he just sighed, "You lost your bounty too?"

"Yup, but I got Nibbler", Leela replied, trying to sound as optimistic as possible. It wasn't a very simple task considering that they had just been shown up by a pair of deranged robots and Fry was still bedridden from his injuries.

"Who the Hell is Nibbler?"

"My new pet", she gestured to the black little creature who had approached Fry while he was distracted. The creature sniffed Fry's feet vigorously and opened its mouth, Leela reached out and grabbed it before it could bite down, "No. Fry's a friend, not food."

"Why'd you name him Nibbler?"

"Because he never nibbles, he just swallows everything whole."

Fry chuckled a bit, but stopped when a searing pain overtook him and took all of the joy out of being perverted, "Isn't he the thing Mom wanted back?"

"Yes, but she would only pay us if we caught the robot too, so I just decided to keep him, especially after I began to suspect them of animal testing."

Fry furrowed his brow, "I hate pets… Seymour was the best, I'll never meet a pet as loyal or as anything as that dog. He was glorious…"

"Nibbler is a good boy… at least I think he's a boy."

Nibbler squirmed out of Leela's grip and jumped down onto Fry's stomach and resumed sniffing him. Fry coughed up some blood when the creature landed on him and he tried to knock it off of his chest where it stood, but to no avail. It took one last long sniff of him before it scurried out of the room, leaving a confused Fry and Leela in its wake. Leela scratched her head, "Guess he either really likes you or really hates you."

"If he hates me the feeling is mutual", Fry crossed his arms and starred off out the window for a few moments before he picked up the remote and turned on the television, "I think Divorced Without Children is on Leela."

Leela was happy for a change of topic, it wasn't often that Fry spoke in absolutes, normally he'd just go along with something until he knew how he felt about it, not immediately decide. Maybe she wasn't the only one with a past that they didn't like to talk about, or remember… or think about.

"Leela do your impression of the wife", Fry asked excitedly, as if he'd completely forgotten that he'd been acting serious just a few moments before. Leela was glad Fry had brought her out of her deep thought before The Order came to mind, and she gladly seized the opportunity to distract herself from her thoughts, and her past.

**In the next episode Leela, Fry and the Professor head to Mars Vegas for some down time, but end up with more than they bargained for when a certain robot makes another appearance. **


	3. Cold, Cold, Heart

**Thanks for reading my previous two chapters. I hope you're all enjoying this story, it has been a pleasure writing it. **

Episode 3: Cold, Cold Heart

October 2, 3000

This was the first time he'd ever felt this way, he wanted to do something… good. He was a man of crime and mayhem and he wanted to do something that would help society. After he'd found out what those god damn girders were used for he couldn't work for Mom anymore. So he did the only thing he knew how to do- other than bend –steal. He stole one of Mom's precious little dark matter creators and ran. He was doing a good job too until those stupid bounty hunters caught up with him, now that thing was back in Mom's hands and he was as good as dead. He took a long drag from his cigar and put a quarter in the slot machine; then he yanked back on the string tied to his finger and the quarter returned to his hand. It spun a few times and he gazed deeply into it, wishing there was some way for him to get back at that old hag.

Farnsworth took a pack of cigarettes out of his lab coat's pocket and stuck one in his wrinkled mouth. He held the pack out to Fry and Leela, offering them each a smoke. Fry took one and stuck it in his mouth while Leela put up her hands in protest, "I quit a while ago." Farnsworth fumbled around in his pockets searching for a lighter while Fry struck up a conversation with Leela, "Why'd you quit?"

"Because smoking is unhealthy", she responded, clicking her lounge and crossing her arms.

"Being healthy is for the wealthy", Fry grinned as Farnsworth held out the lighter and lite Fry's cigarette.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard", Leela glared at Fry as he took a drag from the cigarette. Farnsworth must have forgotten he'd put a cigarette in his mouth because he put his lighter away and starred off into space in his usual senile manor. Fry blew a cloud of smoke in her direction, "Secondhand smoke inhalation still counts"

He smirked and leaned against the doors of the elevator, Leela frowned, "Then I might as well pick up the habit again", she punched him in the gut and caught the cigarette as it flew from his mouth. Fry doubled over and laughed a few times as she breathed in. Once he straightened his posture he saw that she too was grinning from ear to ear.

"You darn kids and your smoking. I gave up smoking a hundred years ago when I was just becoming senile", the old man shook his fist and the cigarette fell from his mouth, "Huwah?"

He glanced down at the smoke lying on the elevator floor and adjusted his glasses. He seemed to stare at it for a few minutes before he returned to staring at the wall behind Leela. The elevator doors open and Fry tumbled to the floor of the casino. Leela snuffed out her cigarette and tossed it into a trash receptacle nearby before she helped Fry to his feet. Farnsworth shuffled out of the elevator and exclaimed, "Good news everyone, we'll meet back here in four days… er-um… hours."

He left Fry and Leela alone to decide what to do, "What do you wanna do first Leela?"

Leela put her hand to her chin, "How bout I make it up to you for that smoke, you hungry?"

"Am I?"

Leela chuckled, it was funny to see how excitable the guy was. She never knew if it was just him or whether all people from the stupid ages took joy in strange things. She started off in the direction of the buffet table, where there was sure to be an abundance of food, among other things.

Fry took a bite of his chicken pot pie; it was pretty good for being cooked in a casino buffet. The chicken was warm and nearly melted in his mouth, he found it a little odd that Leela had barely touched her food, so he decided to strike up a conversation.

"Leela, back when we first met you said something about someone named Brannigan."

Leela froze, she'd been pushing her food around with a fork, but she stopped at the mention of the name.

"Who's Brannigan?"

"No one I want to talk about", she responded, still not moving.

"Ex-boyfriend", Fry ventured, he knew Leela didn't like to talk about her past as it was riddled with pain, sorrow and death, but he was just so interested in her he couldn't help but ask. What other woman could fight three armed thugs with her bare hands and win, what other woman could outfly professional spaceship pilots? None, none except Leela.

She buried her face in her hands- probably in shame, "Not even."

"Oh, he was one of those kinds of guys."

"Yeah, and he cloned me-", she stopped before she said anything else, she'd said too much already. Fry didn't need to know about _her_, she didn't want to get poor Fry involved in her life. She's already screwed up enough innocent people's lives, maybe at some other time she could tell him more, but for now he didn't need to know. He was better off not knowing, at least for the foreseeable future.

"How about we play some games?" He asked, at least Fry knew when to stop prodding, he prodded just enough to be caring. Leela gave Fry a half smile, "Sure, why not."

Bender collected his winnings from the bottom of the slot machine and stuffed them into his chest compartment. He stood up and started off for the exit when he was stopped by two killbots, "Sir, we're going to have to ask you to come with us."

Bender put up his manipulators and took a few steps back, "Come on fellas, don't be hasty now."

"Just come with us and everything will be okay", the killbots' gatling guns began to rotate, indicating that they were preparing to fire.

"Don't shoot fellas", if Bender was going to say anything else it was cut off by the killbots.

"Did someone say shoot?" The two robots opened fire, ripping slot machines to shreds, sending money flying everywhere. Bender took off toward the nearest exit, which happened to be on the other side of the casino, with the two well-armed killbots in hot pursuit.

Leela put a quarter in the slot machine and watched it spin before coming to a halt with three oranges, "You win dammit", the machine shot change all over the floor and Leela began to collect it, but was interrupted by the distinct sound of gunfire. She looked up at Fry, "Did you hear that?"

"I grew up in New York Leela, a little gunfire is no big deal."

"This is Mars Vegas, it's a gun free zone", She furrowed her brow, Fry was being difficult and now wasn't the time for it, someone's life could be in danger.

"So was New York, but that didn't stop us from shooting each other."

A bouncer approached the duo, "Would you two like to move to a different part of the casino?"

"No", Leela replied coldly, she wasn't going anywhere.

"I can offer you both a day at our couples retreat."

"We're not a couple, and I'm not moving, I'm having great luck on this machine", she stood up to intimidate the bouncer- it didn't work too well.

"I'm going to have to remove you then."

"Is it because of the gun shots?"

"Leave, before I use force."

Leela breathed quickly, Fry could tell this wasn't going to end well, Leela was tense which meant she was gearing up for a fight. He'd seen that look on her countless times and there was always a fight shortly after she got it. Neither Leela nor the bouncer spoke for a few moments, they just stared at one another. Fry slid to the edge of his seat so he'd be able to get to his feet quickly is this escalated. Finally the bouncer made his move, he out his hand on Leela's shoulder to forcefully remove her. He saw her eye go cold; it was like looking into a shark's eyes. She grabbed the bouncer by his hand and flung him into a row of slot machines, knocking them over in the process. Fry flew to his feet and looked around for more bouncers, one charged at her from behind and he tripped him as he ran. The bouncer toppled to the floor where Fry kicked him in the gut. Leela took off towards the sound of the gunfire and Fry followed her lead. They weaved through rows of machines for some time before the same robot that they'd been running from a few days earlier ran into them. He slammed into Leela and she flew backwards, landing on her rear. He didn't budge, but he stopped to look at them.

"You guys have to help me"

"Why should we help you?", Leela asked as she pulled herself to her feet.

"Because you've just been seen socializing with me so I can say I already knew you and you helped me steal that animal."

"Nibbler", Leela corrected him with angrily.

"So you still have him? Great, Let's go already!"

Before the robot could explain any further a volley of bullets rained down on them. Leela and Fry took off in the direction that they had come from, hoping to outrun the rampaging killbots. Fry took his Beretta from his coat and pointed it in the direction of the killbots. He fired at them, but his bullets just bounced off of their bodies- whatever they were composed of it sure was strong. He reloaded the gun and took aim again, this time he aimed at the treads that they moved around on. He fired off a volley of shots at one of the robots and its treads broke, causing the machine to do a flip before exploding. However the other killbot pressed on, it continued shooting at the trio as they made their way towards the elevator. Suddenly Leela shouted, "Farnsworth", in their hastiness they'd completely forgotten about the scientist. He was still somewhere in the casino.

Farnsworth sat at the bar, he took a sip of his vodka- he'd fallen in love with the stuff years ago when he'd worked for Mom. He looked across the bar, scanning for potential mates, and his eyes came to rest on an endearing looking woman about his age. Her grey hair was up in buns, he'd seen her somewhere… where was it. Then it hit him like a pound of bricks- that was Mom. She never appeared in public without her old dress on, it made her look a lot nicer and fatter, but he never minded. Suddenly he was overcome with flashbacks, snow, yetis, Titan. He put one of his hands to his head and chugged the remints of his glass before he stood up and shuffled away from the bar. Gunshots sounded and more flashbacks pounded his brain, he forced himself to go faster, the last time he'd been shot at he'd nearly been hit. He made his way towards the elevator and was there in a matter of minutes- the bar wasn't even fifteen meters from the elevator. As he neared the elevator he could hear a woman shouting his name and he turned to see his two employees and a bending unit racing towards the elevator. Leela scooped Farnsworth up in her arms as she passed him and Fry pushed the 'up' button as fast as he humanly could. The lone killbot closed in on the four panic stricken citizens and they would have been shot to bits had the killbot not overheated its gun. It stopped shooting, giving the elevator time to arrive and open. They scrambled into it and Leela pressed the roof button, as the doors closed she breathed a sigh of relief. Fry leaned against the wall of the elevator and slid to a sitting position, "Let's… let's… never do that again", he panted.

He received nods from Farnsworth and Leela, and then Bender spoke up, "I'd hate to get you folks involved in this, and by hate I mean love because other peoples' misfortunes brighten my day."

Leela held up her hands, "What exactly is _This_?"

"This is my feud with Mom. She is evil, she needs to be stopped", the robot waved his arms, trying to provoke a response from the three baffled humans that lay before him.

Leela was about to tell off the robot when Farnsworth spoke up, "I know, and I think, that with your help, I can finally do it."

"You- pff, it'll take more than an old meat sack to take down Mom."

"But you forget that this meat sack is a genius!", the old scientist pointed to the sky with a wicked grin so disturbing that both Fry and Leela wished they could forget seeing it.

"Oh… you may be just what I need then, because Purple here is pretty good with hand to hand combat from what I've seen, and Red over there is a damn good shot with that antique pea shooter."

"Hey, Wisconsin's a beautiful piece of machinery, and it's been through more than you ever will."

"Wisconsin? You mean like the old state?" Leela raised her eyebrow and waited for Fry to answer.

"Wisconsin was my mom's favorite college football team, and they won the rose bowl the year I was frozen, and the year before that, so this is kinda like me tipping my hat to them", Fry said uncomfortably, shifting awkwardly as he spoke; it was obviously a subject he didn't enjoy talking about.

"What exactly do you plan to do?", Leela put her hands on her hips and eyed the robot suspiciously; she didn't expect him to have a plan.

"We waltz up to Mom's front door, kick it down and kick her old wrinkled ass."

Leela was about to object when the professor spoke up, "I've done extensive research of the building, most of it when I was still in my stalking phase, and I actually do believe that the front doors are the safest entrance. All secret entrances are heavily guarded and she can't have armed guards scaring off customers so there will only be light security. Of course if you survive you'll owe me for providing you with that vital piece of information."

"Sure, whatever, I just want to stick it to the man. No one is allowed to be that evil except me."

Fry stuck his hands in his pockets and casually strolled up to the front doors of Mom's Friendly Robot Company. The front doors automatically slid open and he entered. The lobby was filled with the humdrum of robots and a few humans darting this way and that. He pushed his way through the crowded room towards the back where he hoped to enter the restricted area, he glanced about- Leela and Bender were still right behind him. He reassured himself that all was going to go according to plan and he pressed on until a gut-wrenching yell broke his concentration. He spun around to see that Bender had been picked up by a large mechanical claw that reached out of an opening in the ceiling. A mob of guards had completely surrounded Leela and she struck up a defensive stance in preparation for a fight. Fry reached into the depths of his jacket and took out his Beretta, he aimed it at the claw that held the still screaming Bender and fired a few shots. He must have hit something vital as the claw opened and Bender fell to the floor. The robot jumped to his feet and began swinging his fists violently; the security guards that had moved in on him took a few steps back so they wouldn't be hit by him. Fry realized too late that he too was completely surrounded and he pointed his gun at the crowd of angry security officers. His finger began to depress the trigger when a booming female voice distracted him, "So my lost protégé returns, …welcome back Bender. Whoever you two are I thank you for returning my robot, but I'm sure he's told you far too much so you'll have to be eliminated", the voice came from the loudspeakers positioned on the wall, so there was little hope of locating the woman. Fry heard the loudspeaker click off and the guards resumed closing in on him and his friends. He backed up as they moved in on him until he backed into Leela and Bender. The trio exchanged nervous glances before they dug in for the fight ahead. They stood in wait, until a robot lunged at Leela; she deftly grabbed it by its arm and tossed it back into the crowd of attackers as a guard leapt at Bender. Bender kicked the man in the gut, spun him around and kicked him to the floor. The bending unit quickly took a cigar out of his chest compartment and lit it as Fry fired into the crowd. He reloaded his gun and looked to see how his friends were doing. Leela was midway through a flying roundhouse kick to a man's head and Bender was in the midst of punching another robot. Fry's attention was brought back to himself as a pipe smashed into his gut. A robot raised the lead pipe again for another swing, this time Fry evaded the robots attack and blasted it with his gun. He didn't have time to recover from the robot when another man fired at him with a laser rifle of some sort. He ducked and was about to put the man down when he was kicked in the ribs by yet another attacker- there were just too many of them.

Leela punched a man in the ribs and heard a deafening crack; she pushed him to the floor and quickly sized up her next target, another robot. She jumped into the air and let out a triumphant, "Hi-yah!"

Her boot collided with the robot's head, knocking it clean off, she heard Fry moan in pain and spun around to see him getting kicked in the ribs. She lunged at his attacker and pushed him to the floor. That's when she spotted the man with the laser rifle; she dove to the floor as he fired at her. She rolled to close the gap between herself and the gunman. She came out of the roll gracefully and got right back into her normal stride. She kicked the gun out of his hands and then rapidly delivered kicks to his head, gut and then knee; he toppled to the floor defeated. She looked over her shoulder; Fry was back on his feet. He aimed his gun at her and fired, she ducked and the bullet whizzed past where she would have been and into an attacker that she hadn't seen.

"Sorry, bad shot."

"Thanks anyway."

Bender tossed his used up cigar to the floor and took a beer out of his chest compartment, he popped the cap off and drank the whole bottle. He turned to the crowd and let out a fiery belch. Many of their attackers got out of the way; those that didn't were set aflame. Bender darted towards the exit, followed closely by Fry and Leela. As they approached the sliding glass doors a barred gate slammed in front of the doors, stopping the trio from escaping.

"They forget my primary function!"

Bender leapt at the bars; he took a bar in each manipulator and pulled outwards. The bars gave in a matter of seconds and bent, leaving a hole big enough for them to escape through. The trio scrambled out into the street and Bender bent the bars back into place as they went, trapping their assailants in the building. Fry and Leela breathed a collective sigh of relief once they were far enough away from the building to relax. Bender held out his manipulator expectantly and made a coughing sound; Fry and Leela took out their wallets and put a few bills in the robot's hand. He quickly stuffed the money into his chest compartment and took out three beers. He opened them and drank all three, leaving Fry and Leela feeling a little left out.

"Let's get back to the Planet Express Building", Fr suggested as he started off towards the building with Leela in tow.

"That was a total bust", Leela added as she trudged along with him.

Bender followed the two bounty hunters back to the Planet Express Headquarters where they explained what had transpired to the professor. He took the news rather well and went on to explain that he doubted that they'd survive even with his helpful hint.

"But there is one small sliver of good news", the old man said once he was nearly finished, "We're getting a new appliance!"

Fry and Leela perked up a bit, "Is it a new coffee machine?", they asked- almost in unison.

"No, no. It's much better!"

"Well what is it?", Bender was clearly growing impatient.

"You! I said you'd owe me if you survived, welcome to the team!"

**In the next episode Fry, Leela, Nibbler and Bender head to a thrift shop to look for ammunition for Fry's gun.**


	4. Thrift Shop

**So here is another chapter, this episode is a nice little tangent from the action I've been throwing at you in the previous few. I'm going to give you a taste of the main plotline in this episode so it isn't completely pointless, sorry if you wanted action.**

Episode 4: Thrift Shop

October 19, 3000

Leela flicked her lighter on and raised the flame to the cigarette in her mouth. She puffed on the cigarette and muttered, "Dammit Fry, getting me addicted to these things again."

_For a moment she was back in The Order. She puffed on the cigarette and slid a battery into her laser pistol. She checked to make sure it was charged then nodded to her 'other'. Her 'other' nodded back then Leela kicked open the doors to the church where the traitors were supposed to be hiding, it was empty. She looked left, then right. There was defiantly no one here, several metallic clicks sounded and she spun around. She still didn't fully understand why it had to be that way._

She shook her head, trying to get The Order off of her mind. Her cigarette glowed bright orange and she took a long drag of it, letting herself relax as she did. She leaned against the railing of the Planet Express tower balcony and looked out at the city. She took a few more puffs of the cigarette and it was gone, she took the pack back out of her Applied Cryogenics coat. She flipped it open and removed a fag before she stuffed the pack back into her coat. She fumbled around in her pockets for her lighter for a few moments before she was started by Fry's voice from behind her, "It's sad that in the year three thousand people still need to sneak off for a fag"; he leaned against the railing beside her and flicked on his lighter. He lifted it to her mouth and she lowered her head so the cigarette was in the flame. It glowed orange and she took a drag. Fry took a cigarette out of his own jacket and stuck it in his mouth, lighting it a few moments afterward. He took a drag and eyed Leela, she came up here to think a lot and he hadn't- until recently –figured out where she would disappear to. Leela let out a sigh and smoke lingered around her head before it floated up into the sky. Fry realized that she looked a little down and decided it was up to him as her best friend to cheer her up, "Hey Leela, look at this."

Fry took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled, the smoke floated out of his mouth as heart shaped rings, "Pretty cool huh?"

Leela forced a smile, "Pretty cool."

Fry crushed his cigarette out and turned to Leela, "Hey, I'm a little short on ammo, how about you and I go to the thrift shop and get some?"

"Do I really look that bad?" She asked, still staring out at the concrete jungle.

"You look like you're thinking. Hopefully you're not still thinking about that guy."

"Who, Zapp? No… I'm thinking about what he got me into."

"With the clone?"

"Yes Fry, with the clone", she hissed, her voice overflowing with frustration and misplaced anger.

"What exactly happened?"

"Nothing, I left… so nothing happened."

"Left what?"  
"The Order you dimwi-…", her voice trailed off as she realized she'd inadvertently given out a piece of information that could lead Fry to his ultimate demise if he followed up on it.

"Come on Leela. You need some time off", he took the cigarette from her hand and tossed it over the balcony. He took her hand and dragged her towards the elevator that connected the tower with the rest of the building. Fry pushed the down button and dragged her into the elevator after him. Leela didn't protest or even grumble, she didn't want to admit it, but it was nice to be lead around by someone for once. She was always the one making decisions, giving orders; it was an enjoyable experience to have someone do it to you for a little while.

"Remember, my gun is Beretta 92FS so don't bring my any batteries thinking I can use them, okay?"

"Yeah Fry I know", she stepped into the thrift shop and was stunned to see rows of bins filled with everything possibly imaginable. Her mouth dropped at the sight, she'd never been to a thrift shop or an antique store before and wasn't expecting what she saw.

"Glorious, isn't it", Fry said from behind her as he too stepped into the store.

Fry smiled and started towards the weaponry area. Leela followed closely after him and they began digging through the bins looking for ammunition for his gun. The bin he was digging through was filled with bullets, lots of bullets. The worst part about it was that there was no organization to it; he just had to match up a used casing from his gun with the bullets he found to tell if his gun would fire them or not. The process was monotonous and he hated doing it, Leela's company seemed to help him through it though. Normally he'd be bored and lonely, but with Leela around he had someone to talk to.

"So how did you end up in NNYC?"

"I was left here as a baby and something just brought me back I guess", Leela said, picking up a box of ammunition that she handed to Fry to inspect.

"So you were born here?"

"I guess"

"We have the same hometown", Fry said with a smile as he examined the bullets in the box- they were the right kind so he set them in a shopping cart nearby them.

"Yup"

"You said something brought you back. Where did you go?"

Leela was surprised at how observant Fry was being, normally something like that would just go right over his head, maybe there were some things he too like to keep secret. Never the less, she wasn't going to tell him all about The Order.

_"Leela, are you sure about this?" Warden Vogel asked, taking a sip of his coffee. He had such sad eyes, Leela could tell he'd been through hell in some way or another. Maybe he was in the War of 2971; she'd heard one of his friends say something like that once. _

"_I'm sure, and you can't keep me here any longer; even if you want to."_

"_I know, I'm just going to miss you. You always were my favorite one, mainly because you never broke anything."_

"_Oh… well thanks", Leela spun on her heels to leave the Warden's office, but he spoke up again and she stopped to hear him out. _

"_Leela, wait", she turned around and looked him in the eyes, "There's all kinds of people in the universe and you're just a girl."_

"_I can handle myself", Leela scoffed, a little mad that he had the nerve to doubt her abilities._

"_I don't doubt your abilities; you've just always been so special… like a daughter almost. I just feel like you're destined for something better… something great. That's why I want you to have this."_

_He took a small wooden box- no bigger than a cigar box -out of his desk, inscribed on it was his name and the words '11__th__ Cavalry'. He set the box on his desk and pushed it towards her. She stepped forward and sat down at the seat across the desk from him. She opened the box, in it were several pictures of the Warden and other soldiers in the sewers, putting down the mutant insurrection. One picture in particular caught her attention. The Warden was on a knee handing a chocolate bar to a mutant girl. The girl had tentacles for arms, and that was about all Leela could make out since she was facing away from the camera. The date- June 6, 2971 -was scrawled in barely legible handwriting at the bottom of the picture. Somehow she'd overlooked the laser pistol in the box; it was a puke-green color and had a fully charged battery in it. She picked it up to see if it was real- it was. She looked up from the gun to the Warden, "Why?"_

"_Like I said, there are all kinds of people in the world. Kung foo will only get you so far Leela."_

"Yeah, I left. I'm back now so why does it matter?"

"How long were you gone?" Fry completely ignored her question and continued to prod.

"I left for five years"

"Why so long?"

"I needed to escape; I hated this city for being so cruel to me as a child. I needed some adventure."

"Five years of it?"

"Fry, why are you the one asking all of the questions?"

"Because you're really interesting", he answered, it was so simple yet so sweat and honest as he almost always was.

"No I'm not", she replied almost too quickly.

"Well I think you are", he smiled and picked up another bullet. He did a quick comparison with the casing he had, then deemed it the correct caliber and tossed it into the shopping cart.

"The more you know about me, the less likely you are to die of old age", it was a brutal way to put it, but it was the truth. Fry was better off not becoming close with her. He stared at her to see if was being serious- she was. "Maybe I don't want to die of old age", Fry mumbled as he tossed another bullet into the cart.

"I think I have enough", he took hold of the cart and began pushing it towards the checkout register. Leela followed him; an awkward silence had descended on the two friends after Leela's dark comment and neither was trying to break it. Fry paid for the ammunition with the company credit card and pushed the shopping cart out of the store and into the parking lot. Leela helped him load it all onto the Planet Express ship then they took off. Fry sat in his usual spot in the navigator's seat and watched Leela pilot the ship.

"Leela?"

"What?", she didn't look away from the sky, she just continued staring straight ahead. Fry couldn't tell if she was doing it to avoid eye contact or if she was actually just that focused on flying.

"You wanna get coffee or something coz I'm kinda hungry and I don't want to eat whatever Bender has planned for dinner", in the few weeks Bender had been with the Planet Express, Fry and Leela leaned that he was an awful cook.

"Yeah, neither do I", Leela altered the ship's course and landed outside the coffee shop where she'd had her run in with Fry a few months earlier. The duo entered and ordered coffees and an apple pie, then seated themselves at a table on the patio.

A waitress brought them their coffees and pie, and then left them to themselves. Fry sipped his coffee and stuffed his mouth with pie; he tried to ask Leela something, but a mouthful of pie stopped him. He chewed and swallowed it, then tried again, "How do you like bounty hunting?"

"It's fine…", Leela left her sentence unfinished, it hung awkwardly in the air. This was better that what she used to do and Fry knew that, even if he didn't even know what she used to do.

_The bureaucrat behind the desk stamped Leela's job application with the 'denied' stamp and slid her papers back to her. This was the seventeenth job she'd been denied on a basis of a lack of depth perception. She felt like the system was rigged against her; it was upsetting that at this day in age aliens were still discriminated against. Some primal part of her mind shouted for her to take the laser pistol from her purse and blast him, but she fought back the disgusting urge. She made her way out of the building and into the street. She punched a mailbox as she passed it; it crumpled and toppled over. She wanted to leave, she needed to get away. In they few months she'd been out of the orphanarium she'd accomplished nothing; she still had no job, maybe she could get a job as a nurse in the army._

"_Oh god", she turned her head to her left; Zapp Brannigan was snoring away next to her in the bed. She sat up, her stomach flipped over and over again, she nearly threw up. She put her hand to her forehead and closed her eye tight. This was all a dream; she opened it- no such luck. She slid out of the bed and slipped into her clothes, she was getting out of the army- right now. She pulled her boots on and crept out the door. She made her way to the Nimbus' hangar and climbed into a fighter jet. She was a little nervous about going AWL and stealing a military space-jet. She pushed herself to carry on; she couldn't work with Zapp anymore, he was just so idiotic. She hadn't been around anyone so stupid or annoying in her entire life, and she didn't want any more of it. She primed the jet's engine and then started it. The jet lifted off of the hangar deck and flew out into space, never to be found again._

"Leela, are you okay?"

Fry waved his hands in front of her face to see if she was okay. She blinked rapidly and leaned back a little, "Yeah, I'm fine", she stood up and downed the last of her coffee. Fry stuffed the last piece of pie into his mouth and chewed it as quickly as humanly possible before he too stood up. They made their way back through the coffee shop and out the front door, Leela in the lead. She bumped into a man in a fancy suit as she left the coffee shop and he turned around to see who bumped into him. Leela gasped a little- he was the mayor's aid.

"Well hello. I haven't bumped into someone as beautiful as you since I walked into my mirror this morning."

"Hi", Leela shied away; Fry caught up with her, but he had overheard the beginning of the conversation anyway.

"I'm Chaz, the mayor's aid", he took a business card out of his suit's pocket and handed it to her.

"I'm Leela-"

"And you're head over heels?"

Leela laughed and they talked a bit more. Fry was fuming, and he had no idea why. He was just so upset; it bothered him to see someone else flirting with Leela. Did he like her? That was a weird question, they were friends nothing more. That was the truth right? Or was it what he wanted to believe, did he have feelings for her? It was a weird feeling, a wrenching feeling in his gut. He bit his lip and waited for Chaz to depart before he spoke again, "Well that was… strange."

Leela tilted her head to the side, "How? I'm a grown woman Fry", she put her hands on her hips and eyed him, waiting for a response.

Fry leaned back a bit and looked her up and down, "Yes…you are", he said with a smirk.

She let herself relax a bit and gingerly punched his shoulder, "Let's get back to the ship."

**In the next episode an enemy from Leela's past reemerges and exacts their revenge on the Planet Express crew, leading them to take in a new member.**


	5. Vicarious

**So this is my 'season finale'. Don't worry, this isn't how it's going to end; I'm just going to get back to my other story and hopefully finish it. Sorry for the long update time, there was just a death in the family and I've been on a bit of a beer bender and I haven't been in any condition to write. FYI I don't have anything against homosexuals, cigarettes are just called fags. Anyway, here you go.**

Episode 5: Vicarious

October 29, 3000

Fry scooped up some bachelor chow with his spoon and took a bite. He chewed it thoroughly while he watched Bender watch television from the couch. It been a few days since Fry decided he'd room with Bender, but he considered it a good idea. Sometimes the professor could stay up all night tinkering with things, and then blow them up. It was nice to just crawl in bed and fall asleep. The only time Bender was a pain was when he brought home floozies. In the week Fry had been living there Bender had brought floozies home three times, and Fry barely slept any of those nights, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the explosions coming from the professor's lab. Calculon's shouting brought Fry back to reality, "But I love you, I've always loved you. I just wasn't able to see it until now."

Bender shut the television off and turned around to face Fry, "We should get going."

Fry and Bender left their apartment and made their way to the tube station so they could head to work. There wasn't a line so the two friends were able to get to the Planet Express building a little quicker than they wanted. They entered the conference room, where Farnsworth and Leela were already sitting at the conference table.

"Good news everyone, Saturn's Moons are in civil war again and as usual it's attracting lots of attention… and bounties", he shuffled out of the conference room, and into the lounge where the television was already running and a news report was already in progress. Fry could hear Morbo's angry voice before he even got into the lounge, "Titan and the three other outermost Moons of Saturn declared their independence from the four inner moons and the system of floating cities that support Saturn's population late last night and Rhea followed suit in declaring independence early this morning, ending a long period of peace in the solar system. The DOOP doesn't want to get involved; its leaders have said that Saturn's problems are up to it to deal with. During the last Civil War between the moons and the planet, the DOOP did get involved and deeply regretted its choice to support the Inner Moons and Saturn after watching their cruel treatment of the impoverished Outer Moons. Earth president Nixon has yet to make a statement on Earth's stance on the war, but is expected to make an announcement later this evening as all of the planets are mainly inhabited by humans."

Linda took the next topic, making the transition flawlessly, "So if you are a bounty hunter and are looking to get involved, both sides are offering money for help. If you're looking to help Saturn and the Inner Moons, head to Mimas for further instructions. If you are looking to support the Outer Moons, you should head on over to Titan- the orchestrator of the rebellion. If you do plan to get involved expect extensive background checks and security checkpoints once you're planetside."

Farnsworth clicked off the television, "Well that's a bunch of hogwash."

Fry, Leela and Bender gave the old man strange looks, but he continued to speak regardless, "You all have the day off."

Giving his employees a day off was very uncharacteristic for the professor, he was always looking to exploit his workers and make every buck possible. Even Bender who had been with Planet Express the shortest out of its employees knew that.

"Really, cause that's not something-", Fry's sentence was cut short by Bender's footcup bashing into his shin. Fry winced and stopped speaking, realizing why he'd been kicked. Leela and Bender got up and left the lounge; Fry followed suit. He didn't want to be left alone with his deranged nephew. Farnsworth remained- remising.

_Hubert kicked his legs violently and flailed his arms, "I'm a scientist, not a soldier!"_

"_The president doesn't care, we don't need scientists, we need infantry and your number got pulled", two men grabbed Hubert by his arms and dragged him into the back of a jeep with military decals spray painted onto it. Once he was in the jeep he gave up resisting. He was only thirty, and he was going to die. Titan was a hellhole, the locals wanted independence badly and were fighting to the death for it. He stared out in the direction he knew Titan was in, why couldn't the Inner Alliance just give the Outer Moons their independence? _

_Hubert cradled his laser Springfield; it was strange that in the year 2865 guns were still modeled after ones from the stupid ages. That wasn't important though, what was important was that he was on a drop ship headed for Shangri-La, the site of some of the most brutal fighting, the farmers and local militia in the area had been holding out for months, in hope that a detachment of Titan's main army would arrive to reinforce them. There were no windows on the drop ship, so Hubert had no idea how close the drop ship was to the landing zone. The sound of artillery and flack going off lead him to believe that they were close. The ship suddenly rocked as a burst of flack exploded near it. He glanced around the cabin; his comrades were just as horrified as he was. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the drop ship touched down and Hubert and his friends quickly jumped out and onto the black material that made up the Shangri-La's surface. He looked around him; hundreds of other drop ships were unloading troops and taking back off. Some of the ships were hit before they even got to land and crashed into the ground in fiery explosions. Hubert pushed himself to move forward- he didn't want to be here, he just wanted to be at home with his inventions. Ahead of them was a hill with the entrance to a mine clearly visible; the militia ran their guerilla warfare campaign all throughout the region, but command had tracked them to this mine system. Mussels flashed from the mine and several of the soldiers advancing with him collapsed. The militia wasn't giving any ground, they continued to fire on Hubert and his fellow troops. Hubert scrambled behind a small dune and found that he was not alone. Several other men had taken cover with him. He glanced over the dune and witnessed the militia burst from the mine and overtake the encroaching Earthican and DOOP forces. Something in him snapped he stood up and ran, ran away from the battle, the death, and the destruction. _

_Hubert pulled himself up onto the top of the plateau with his ice pick, he nearly slipped and fell to his death, but he made it up none the less. As he pulled himself up, his face came into contact with the barrels of several rifles. He swallowed and looked to the soldiers holding the rifles; no Earthican or DOOP flags on their shoulder- good. _

"_I'm a deserter", Hubert stated as soon as he was on level ground._

Farnsworth pulled himself to his feet- there were several loud cracks as he did so –and shuffled out of the lounge. Fry took his ear off of the door; the professor had been mumbling what he was thinking about the whole time, "Wow, the professor was in Saturn War I."

"He doesn't seem like the veteran type", Leela stated as she, Fry, and Bender returned to the lounge to watch television, soon enough the professor would forget what Titan was and come tell them to get back to work. At least that's what they thought for the first few hours that they were watching T.V. Finally the sun was beginning to set and they all began to worry, save for Bender.

"I'll go see if he's dead, so I know if I can start taking his stuff or not", Bender left the lounge for a few minutes then returned, "He's alive."

At that Leela stood up, "Well I better get ready for my date with Chaz if Farnsworth really isn't going to give us work today."

Leela made her way out of the lounge, leaving Fry and Bender to themselves. Neither one spoke, but they didn't need to. What better way was there to spend your time than watching All My Circuits with your best friend? Fry enjoyed every moment of watching T.V with Bender except the lack of a certain cyclopes. The two friends were well into season nine of All My Circuits when Leela stopped by the Planet Express building to talk to them before her date. Fry paused Calculon mid-sentence when she entered the lounge, she was in a plain pink dress- nothing flashy –but it didn't matter to him, she was beautiful. She sat on the arm of the couch and ran through some pleasantries that Bender couldn't care less for and they gradually made their way to more 'sensitive' topics.

"And in the event that I don't make it home tonight here are my keys", she took a key ring from her purse and dropped it into Fry's hands. He gave her a blank stare, that wasn't something he wanted to hear. He closed his fingers around the keychain and nodded.

"Are you okay Fry, you look a little pale", Leela put her hand to Fry's forehead. He recoiled at first, but seemed to come back to reality, "No, just a headache."

"There's Advil in my apartment if you need any", she gave Fry a wave and made her way out the door, once again leaving Fry and Bender alone.

Bender chuckled as soon as he was sure Leela was out of the building- this was going to be fun. Fry cocked his head, "What?"

"Oh nothing", Bender chuckled a bit more to make sure Fry was frustrated and interested in what he was thinking.

"What?!"

"Your chubby for Leela… it's hysterical. "

"No it's not", Fry crossed his arms and looked away from the bending unit.

"She doesn't even know does she?"

Fry continued not looking at Bender and tried not to respond to his comment, but couldn't stop himself, "No she doesn't, I didn't even realize until last week."

Bender stopped chuckling and broke out in a full on laugh. He rolled off the couch and onto the floor, rocking back and forth, continuing to laugh at his friend's misfortunes, "The funniest part is how oblivious she is!"

Fry stood up and stepped over the robot, "I don't have to sit through this, I'm going to Leela's to get some Advil for my headache", Fry said, making air quotes when he said the word headache. Bender continued his laughing fit so Fry walked out of the Planet Express building and started off towards Leela's apartment building. He reached it in no time and ascended the stairs to her apartment- 1I –he giggled a bit after he made the connection, and then he unlocked the door and entered. The apartment was nearly empty; nothing but a single chair and a television was in the living room. The walls were all white and had no decorations on them. Her kitchen had one small table with two chairs, other than that there was nothing but the usual appliances and cabinetry found in a kitchen. He opened a cabinet to look for Advil- no luck –then another, and another. He struck out on every cabinet in the kitchen, making him wish that Leela had been more specific about where her Advil was. He wasn't completely sure if he even had a headache or if he was just looking around in her apartment because he could. Regardless of his motives he continued 'looking for Advil'. He eventually discovered her medicine cabinet in her bathroom and searched it, but it was devoid of Advil. He realized there was only one room in the apartment left to search- the bedroom. He felt a little weird going into it, but thought Leela might keep her Advil in her it. He pushed open the door and it creaked as it slowly swung open. In the bedroom there was a bed, a nightstand with a picture of him on it and a closet- nothing else. He picked the picture up and examined it in detail; it was a photo of him and Leela in front of the Statue of Liberty. He set it back _exactly _as it had been before he touched it and made his way to her closet, seeing as that was the only logical place left to look. He slid the closet door open; on the closet floor were several pairs of black combat boots, a single red 'formal' pair of boots and a pair of heels. Hanging on various hangers was her usual outfit, that white tank top and black stretch pants. On the far side of the closet were the clothes she wore less often, her neon tank top and a few assorted dresses. On a shelf above the clothes was a single, solitary, wooden box. Fry reached up and took it in his hands; it was no bigger than a cigar box and had the name Vogel on it with 11th Cavalry written underneath the name. He opened it and found Leela's favorite laser pistol as well as a knife and many pictures. One picture was of Leela on the Nimbus, and several others were of meetings with people in suits. A lot of the images were of Titan and several of the other moons in the solar system with the exception of Earth's. One of the pictures- taken on Hyperion -really caught Fry's eye and he picked it up to examine it closer. It was of a military star fighter, parked in an empty lot, a price and address was written on the bottom of the picture. Fry had always wanted a ship of his own so he wrote down the address on a piece of paper then returned the photo to the box and put the box back in its place. Fry made sure everything was as it had been before he arrived as he made his way out of the apartment.

Fry trotted into the Planet Express Hangar and ascended the staircase that lead to the bridge of the Planet Express ship. He sat in the pilot's seat to find the keys still in the ignition. He pressed a button on the control panel and the roof of the hangar opened; thank god he'd paid attention when Leela did that. He pressed a few more buttons and the ship lifted off of the ground and left Earth's atmosphere. He took the note with the address written on it out of his pocket and looked at the address- Hyperion. He wasn't all too excited to fly into a war zone, but Hyperion was far enough away from Titan, Rhea and the major boarder areas that he felt security wouldn't be too bad. He was right, there were only five checkpoints and he was on the moon in less than an hour. He found the place in the picture quickly; it was a farm on the far side of the planet with several huge turbines in the yard. He walked up to the house and knocked on the door. The farmhouse was old and run down, boards covered every single window and the floorboards on the porch creaked as Fry stepped on them.

"Hello", he half asked as he knocked- the farm looked like it was either abandoned or the inhabitants didn't care what outsiders thought.

"Hello", called out a familiar female voice from the other side of the door. Fry couldn't quite put his finger on it, so he pushed it to the recesses of his mind. She didn't open the door which was also quite strange.

"I'm interested in your spaceship."

There was a pause before she spoke again, "Would you leave your number and address so I can get back to you?"

"Yeah", Fry fumbled around in his pockets for the piece of paper with the address scrawled on it, he wrote the Planet Express building's address and phone number on the other side of the paper and slipped it through the house's mail slot.

"Bye", Fry turned around and made his way back to the ship and took off. He didn't have to go through checkpoints to get off of the planet, so the return trip was only a few minutes.

***HHH

In no time Fry was back in front of the television with Bender, enjoying All My Circuits. Bender hadn't missed him, or he'd at least done a good job convincing Fry of that, because the red head sat down without a word and watched television with him. Bender had gotten through all of season nine in his friend's absence and was a good distance into season ten. Bender just assumed Fry didn't know what was going on anyway and tried to focus on his cigar. He took a beer from his chest and chugged it. That was when Leela entered the lounge. She was wearing something different from the last time he'd seen her. In place of her dress she was in her usual attire, but had a black leather coat he'd never seen her wear before. Bender went back to watching television while Fry stared at Leela in awe. The robot turned the volume on the television up when they started speaking in an attempt to block them out.

"Hey Leela", Fry forced a smile; obviously waiting for her to say how her date went.

"Hey… what are you watching", the silence after she said 'hey' bothered Bender a bit, but he couldn't tell why.

"All My Circuits", Fry pushed Bender to the far side of the couch and slid over to make room for Leela. She sat next to Fry and the three friends just stared at the T.V for a few extremely tense moments. Bender actually fidgeted from discomfort, that's how awkward the silence that befell them was. After what seemed like an eternity Leela turned, stared at Fry, then kissed him. Bender was dumbstruck, just an hour before she'd been completely oblivious to Fry's feelings. They began to kiss more passionately and groped at each other and Bender finally had enough, "Can you two go somewhere else and do this?"

They didn't answer, but got off of the couch and stumbled into an unused office that was at one point the bureaucrat's. The door slammed shut and Bender relaxed again, that was weird. Weird was the only thing that could describe this entire day- Farnsworth locked himself in the tower, a war broke out, and now this. He sighed and took a drag of his cigar. Then Leela walked into the lounge- again.

"Hey Bender", she said in a mopey, kind of depressed tone, "Where's Fry?"

Bender didn't know what to say, but he took in what she was wearing- a pink dress. If robots could go pale Bender would be solid white, "Making out with you… in the office over there…"

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

Bender stood up and opened his chest compartment; he took out a pocketknife and flipped it open, "Then who the hell is in the office with Fry?"

Leela's face lost all color; she dropped her purse and scrambled to the office as fast as humanly possible with Bender in tow. She kicked her heels off as she ran and came to a stop outside of the door to the office. She turned the knob and threw it open, in the office on the desk was her and Fry. Fry looked up from kissing her double and the smile faded from his face. He stood up and picked his shirt up from the floor and quickly pulled it back over his head. The Leela Fry was on top of rolled off of the desk and onto her feet. She glared at the Leela standing with Bender, "Hello Leela."

"Hello, Alley", Leela addressed the other Leela by Alley, so Fry and Bender assumed that was her real name.

"Oh! She's your clo-", Fry's sentence was cut off as Alley punched him in the gut.

"Yes Fry, she is", Leela balled her hands into fists and got that look that Fry associated with an ass kicking. Bender backed off, figuring that Leela wanted to settle this herself. Leela's double reached into her boot and took out two throwing stars; she flung them both at Leela. The first zipped past her head and stuck into the wall behind her. The second skimmed Leela's cheek, slicing through the flesh. Leela didn't waste any time in jumping at her clone. She did a flying side kick and it, a usually devastating blow, but Alley skillfully caught Leela's foot and flung her into a wall. Bender decided that now was the time to join the fight and ran at Alley, but she leapt over him and flicked his on/off switch to off. She kicked the shut off robot into Leela as she tried to get to her feet. Leela was pinned under Bender and couldn't manage to get the hunk of metal off of her. Alley began to walk towards Leela for the 'kill blow', but Fry jumped in her way. "No, don't!"

She seized Fry by the collar of his jacket, kissed him, then stabbed him in the gut with Bender's pocket knife that she'd somehow procured during the fight. She twisted it around in his gut then pushed him to the floor. She knelt down next to Leela and smiled, "Weird feeling isn't it, to watch the man you love die before your very eyes."

"I don't love him", Leela said defensively, perhaps more than she was entitled to.

"Cause that's what I wanna hear while I'm dying", Fry complained from the floor, "Just go ahead and tell her I'm dispensable too so she kills me faster", it was nice to see that Fry maintained his sense of humor, even on his deathbed.

Alley stood up, "So you won't care if I do this?"

Fry was lying on his back and Ally knelt next to him. She kissed him again; Leela turned her head away, "No, not at all."

"Or this", Ally kicked Fry in the ribs and he coughed up some blood. Leela winced at the sound of Fry crying out in pain.

"I'm so confused", Fry managed to say in between coughs.

"You'll be dead soon enough, so don't worry about figuring things out", Alley had a wicked grin, he'd never seen Leela smile like that and hoped he never would- it was a look of pure insanity. Leela managed to wiggle her arm free just enough to flip Bender's switch back to on; the robot leapt to his feet as did Leela. She struck up a defensive pose and prepared for another fight. Just as it seemed the two duplicates and Bender were about to go toe to toe the Professor shuffled into the office with a disintegrator rifle. He fired it at Alley and she ducked behind the desk, then dashed past him out the door. Leela chased after her, taking the rifle from Farnsworth as she passed him. She fired off another shot as Alley ran out the front door. The shot zipped across the street and disintegrated a light post. Alley turned and made her way to the abandoned lot across the street from the Planet Express building. Leela could see the star fighter parked in the lot and took aim at its engines. She fired and they exploded leaving Alley with no escape. However the explosion created a plume of smoke that Alley disappeared into. By the time that it cleared she was gone; Leela searched for a few more minutes before she gave up and headed back to the Planet Express building. Once she was back in the lounge where Fry was lying on the couch with Farnsworth bandaging him she felt comfortable enough to ask for an explanation.

"Tell me everything."

"And then you showed up and fought with her", Fry was a little surprised at how well Leela had taken the story, especially the part where he rooted through her apartment in search of 'Advil'. Leela stood up once Fry had filled her in on the final bits of the story. She left the lounge for a few minutes before returning in her tank top and stretch pants. She carried a wooden crate, she set it on the floor by the couch and sat down by Fry's feet. Both Fry and Bender were watching intently as she pried the top off and took out a handful of grenades, knives, and spare batteries for her laser pistol. Fry sat up and winced a little from his still fresh wounds. Leela put her hand on his chest and gently pushed him back into a lying position, "You need to rest."

"And you need help", he countered, but Leela wasn't in the mood to hear it.

"You'd be a bigger help to her than me if you came."

Fry couldn't think of a response so he just crossed his arms and glared at her. She had emptied out the contents of the box and had set them neatly on the table. Along with the impressive display of weaponry were several holsters and a few expensive-looking gadgets.

"Professor, we can't let her escape, do you know anyone that can jam all communications within the city? That way she won't be able to contact… anyone." Leela chose the last word of her sentence very carefully, it was bad enough that she'd already let her secret slip to Fry. She couldn't afford to let anyone else in.

"Yes, he's a senile old bastard, but he should be able to get the job done… I'll get right on it."

"Excellent-", the old man began to speak again and interrupted Leela before she could continue with her sentence, "I just remembered something… I'm that old bastard… and I'm old."

"Is that a problem?"

"Yes, my age will hinder my ability to install a big enough satellite dish to jam communications", he shuffled off to his lab, "But, I have an idea."

Leela followed the old man as he made his way into his lab. He sat in front of a computer and began typing at astonishing speeds for a one-hundred-sixty-five year old man. Several machines around him began to hum and shake, but he continued typing, "Leela, come here."

He handed her a butter knife and pulled up his coat, exposing his back to her, "I believe I have a mole on my back somewhere. Scrape it off if you would."

Leela eyed him skeptically, "Won't that hurt?"

"Oh my no, I lost feeling in my back skin ages ago."

She scrunched her face a little and searched for the mole he'd mentioned. She found it fairly quickly, sitting on his right shoulder. She scrapped at with the knife and it eventually gave and fell off. She managed to catch the lump of skin on the knife before it hit the ground and handed the knife to Farnsworth. He took it and dropped the skin sample into a test tube then slipped the tube into a slot in one of his many contraptions. The machine went up to the ceiling and was attached to a glass tube filled with water. It hummed and shook violently for a few moments, but the professor didn't seem worried at all. He waited patiently and eventually a form took shape in the tube. It was the form of a small child and Leela watched in fascination as it rapidly aged and grew taller, once it reached the height of a toddler Farnsworth shut off the machine and the glass tube opened. A small ginger haired child with Fry's distinctive hair spikes stepped out, he snorted then realized he was completely naked. Farnsworth shuffled over to a drawer and took out a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. He handed them to the boy who quickly pulled them on.

"I think I'll name you Cubert."

The boy snorted and looked the old man up and down, "And you are?"

"Hubert Farnsworth, but you can call me dad."

Farnsworth hugged his clone and then took a step back to admire his handiwork. He put his fingers to his chin and muttered something about more fluorine, then came back to reality.

"Who's depth perception over there?" Cubert jerked his thumb at Leela and waited for his 'father' to answer him.

"She's my spaceship captain: Turanga Leela."

"Does it use deuterium-tritium?" The boy asked, referring to the spaceship.

"Oh no, I originally intended for it to use Helium Three, but I discovered that dark matter is much, much more potent."

Cubert snorted pretentiously, "Figures, anyway how is one eye's piloting?"

"Hey", Leela was sick of being insulted by a… mole. She stepped forward and pointed at the toddler, "My flying is fine I'll let you know."

"Pff, I'm sure. How many billboards do you hit a week- two, three?"

Leela raised her hand to slap him, but Bender- who'd appeared out of nowhere –caught it and interjected, "As much as I'd love to see you slap him senseless I think it'd be better for the galaxy if we found your psychopathic sister-"

"Clone", Leela interrupted coldly, she looked to Cubert and Farnsworth, "Can you build that jammer now?"

"Jammer, those are for kindergarteners", Cubert waved his hand dismissively and snorted again. He'd been alive for a only a few minutes and Leela was already sick of him.

"You'll build the nice lady her jammer Cubert", Farnsworth glared at his clone through his thick glasses and shook his finger.

"Fiiine", Cubert sighed and sat down at a lab table with Farnsworth. The father-son duo quickly got to work and in no time they'd assembled a satellite dish. Farnsworth flipped a cluster of switches and nodded to Leela, "It's on, you'll have a half an hour to find her before I have to shut it off- jamming communications is a serious crime."

Leela flipped a few switches on the ship's control panel and double checked that her laser pistol was tucked in her coat. She pulled back on the yolk and the Planet Express ship lifted out of the hangar, she turned on the radio- static –then remembered that all communications were jammed. She pushed the gas pedal to the floor and the ship accelerated in response. She turned the ship's scanners on and set them to detect attempted transitions to Hyperion. She turned her attention to the screen that indicated the location of anything being picked up by the scanner. There was only one blip on the screen, so picking her target was easy, until two arguing figures came up behind her.

"I told you she wouldn't check the bathroom Bender."

"If we would have hid in her cabin I could have stolen stuff."

Bender sat down in one of the navigator's seats and propped his feet up on the dashboard. Two loud clanks broke the eerie silence that had befallen the bridge. Fry stood next to Leela and tried to start some sort of conversation, blissfully unaware of how tightly- and angrily –she was holding onto the ship's yolk.

"Hi Leela", he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He didn't know what to say- he just stowed away and that was all he had to say.

"Hi Fry", Leela answered with surprising calmness. He'd expected her to be angry or at least frustrated, but unbeknownst to him Leela kind of appreciated his loyalty to her and the fact that he stowed away particularly to help her made it impossible to be mad at him- even if she knew he'd be of no actual use.

"How'd your date go?" Fry asked, in an effort to break the silence and be a good friend. He sat down in his usual chair and tried to divide his attention between Leela and the vast expanse of colorful buttons on the panel in front of him.

"Not very well, he was an egotistical jerk", she turned onto a street and slowed down to compensate for the crammed alley, "And he was really cruel to the kids from the orphanarium."

Fry nodded, he knew how much Leela cared for the kids at the orphanarium and how she felt some sort of kinship between herself and almost all other orphans- particularly those who were never adopted. Evidently they looked up to her like an idol, every child aspiring to be just like her- no matter how screwed up her personal life was.

"That's bad… ", Fry may have had more to say but he trailed off, and silence once again claimed the bridge. Leela looked at the scanner again; the ship was directly over whoever was trying to call Hyperion. The signal moved into a building then disappeared; Leela set the ship down on the roof of the building and turned to Bender and Fry, "Fry, you stay with the ship. Bender you'll stay here and make sure Fry doesn't hurt himself or do anything stupid. I'll contact you if I need any help."

Leela leapt down the gangway and trotted across the roof to a ventilation shaft. She pulled on the cover and it popped off with little resistance. She easily slipped into the vent and began crawling through the air ducts that ran through the building. She tried her hardest to keep her breathing quiet and make as little noise as possible as she made her way through the building. Every so often she'd pass a grate and she could look through it at groups of armed guards patrolling the halls of what looked like a preschool. Her thoughts kept drifting back to Fry… they'd been doing that a lot recently. She was a little surprised that he'd actually found the box full of her old things. She made a mental note to find a better place to hide it- which would probably be easier if apartment 1I wasn't so sparsely furnished. Regardless, Fry now knew everything- virtually –there were a few things she'd managed to keep a secret, but after everyone actually saw _her_ there was no more hiding all of her past. Who better to open up to than Fry; he was sweet, thoughtful and stupid, so he wouldn't realize how bad some of the things she'd done were- and judge her for them. Now that she thought about it, he never judged anyone prematurely, he barely even reacted to her eye when she first met him, and most freezer-jobs were terrified of it. But not Fry. That was something he excelled at; even when his brain failed him- as it often did –he still did the right thing. It was like his brain just had some sort of extra primal instinct, and his idiocy only served to cover it up; in times of turmoil he always was the one to act first. He always did what he thought was right and necessary, of course she ran the show, but he made the impulsive split second decisions that she couldn't make. Her mind was simply too analytical. She had to analyze _everything._ It wasn't that she couldn't analyze quickly, it was that she couldn't be impulsive… at all. A combination of being a loner all of her life and The Order put an end to any of that. Before she met Fry she lived her life by a schedule, which may have been why she was so miserable, but Fry put an end to that. She was grateful for that. In all her years she'd never met anyone quite like Fry, he was the first, and maybe only, person that she could call a true friend. He'd be here now if he hadn't been stabbed and even now, he sat in waiting on the roof. She slid forward and the vent collapsed; she spilled out of it and rolled to her feet, drawing her laser pistol as she did. She was at the corner of two hallways, one lead to the left and up, the other to the right and down. She chose to take the hallway to the left and took off in a brisk jog. She stopped when the hallway funneled into an auditorium; there were twenty or so rows of seats and a stage. The lights were out and the room was dark so Leela had to squint until her eyes became accustom to the dark. She peered to her left and spotted a balcony- she was a fraction of a second too slow. The rifleman in the balcony fired, his bullet whirled through the air and sliced through her left shoulder. She fell backwards, deciding that her best course of action for the time being was to play dead. The gunman threw a rope over the side of the balcony, slung his rifle over his shoulder and climbed down. Leela tightened her grip on her pistol. He made his way through the rows of seats and once he was finally within her field of vision, she sat up and squeezed off a shot. A beam of positrons flew from the barrel of her pistol and burned through the man's chest; he toppled over and she scrambled to her feet as a sword clanged to the ground where she'd been sitting. She put some distance between herself and Alley- who'd been the swordsman. She glared at her clone; the lights clicked on, revealing more gunman positioned throughout the rows of chairs. Alley smiled, and the corner of her mouth twitched before she lunged at Leela with the sword; the gunmen just watched in amassment as Alley did battle with Leela. Alley swung the sword horizontally and Leela rolled under it, delivering a punch to Alley's shin as she rolled past. Leela came out of the roll on her feet and sized up Alley again. Leela raised her pistol and her expression hardened, her finger began to depress the trigger. Alley leapt into the air and kicked the pistol from Leela's right hand. Leela knocked the sword out of Alley's grip and the two toppled to the floor. They rolled down the aisle; each scratching, kicking and clawing at the other. Alley came out on top of Leela and muttered, "This is why I love old guns", she laughed wickedly and pinned Leela's arms under her legs. She put her hand on Leela's left shoulder and gradually pushed her thumb deeper and deeper into the bullet hole in Leela's shoulder. She pushed harder and leaned in, Leela screamed in pain and tried to kick Alley in the back of the head- no luck. Alley leaned in close, her lips mere centimeters from Leela's ear, "They always leave convenient little holes."

Leela moaned and used all the force left in her to surge upwards, Alley was thrown off of her, but landed on her feet. Leela pushed herself even harder to get to her feet, if she didn't Alley would just climb right back on her. Leela narrowed her eye and glared at her clone. Leela reached into her right boot with her only good hand- her right –and pulled a six-inch combat knife out. Alley smiled and did the same; it was funny how alike they were. Leela pointed the knife at her and they began to circle each other like two wolves facing off. Alley put her thumb in her mouth and licked the blood off with a smile. Leela lunged forward and thrust her knife at her opponent's abdomen, but Alley skillfully parried the attack and stabbed Leela in the side, "Oh come on now Leela, I remember you being more of a challenge."

Alley was hopping from foot to foot, as if she was on a sugar high. Leela winced and stumbled backwards into the arms of a Neptunian, he caught her with his lower two arms and held her arms with his upper two. If this had been any normal situation she'd have gotten out of his grasp already, but it wasn't. He squeezed her right hand and Leela dropped her knife. Alley slowly made her way to Leela, "Not so fun being on the wrong end of an ass kicking for once is it?"

Leela didn't respond, she closed her eye and waited for Alley to kill her, but she didn't. Leela opened her eye and was greeted by Alley's smiling face.

"Hi Leela"

"Hi Alley", Leela stammered in between breaths, which were now erratic and raspy.

"You have no idea how long I've been preparing for this day, I just had no idea it would come so soon!" Alley started to monologue, but Leela stopped listening after the first sentence. She turned her attention to something much more important. Leela slid off her left boot as slowly as she could so no one would notice and rolled a grenade out of it. She raised her right boot a little and pressed firmly down on the top of the grenade. With her left foot, she wrapped her toes around the grenade's pin and pulled. That was when everyone noticed; the Neptunian dropped Leela and Alley dove away from her. As Leela dropped to the floor she kicked the grenade and it rolled across the room and exploded, killing a few gunmen, the rest opened fire. Leela was able to pick up her pistol and hobbled out of the auditorium in all of the chaos, but knew she wouldn't be able to stay ahead for long. She moved as quickly as possible through the labyrinth of hallways and finally came to a stop in front of a large window. She looked out of it- she was high up. She could hear men closing in on her and she threw herself against the window, it cracked, but that was all. She rebounded off of the glass and was thrown to the floor. Leela willed herself to stand again; she put a hand against the window for support as she tried to get to her feet, but it was no use. She'd used up the last of her strength trying to jump and she just couldn't stand anymore; she fell to her knees and waited for the gunmen to catch up with her. That's when the glass shattered as a grey robot smashed through it. In each manipulator he held a submachine gun, "Duck meatbag!"

He opened fire on the hordes of gunmen closing in on him. He mowed them down one by one, only stopping to reload. Finally only two enemies remained- Alley and a final gunman. Bender pointed one gun at each and closed his fingers around the triggers. One gun went off and blasted the man to oblivion; the other was chopped into two pieces as Alley swung her sword. She literally sliced the gun in half. Bender pointed the other at her, but she just cut that one apart too. He managed to push her back and in that moment he wrapped his arms around Leela and jumped from the building out of the shattered window. The rope around his waist tightened and a winch on the bottom of the Planet Express ship reeled them into the cargo hold. Bender brought Leela to the bridge when he laid her on the couch and Fry lifted the ship off of the roof and stepped on the accelerator.

November 7, 3000

Leela opened her eye; a grimy, moldy ceiling greeted her. Her nostrils were instantly assaulted with a foul smell, and above all Fry was staring down at her. He was squeezing her hand muttering something that she couldn't make out. His expression immediately brightened when he saw that her eye was open.

"Uh… Hi", he let go of her hand and gave her a smile.

She smiled back and started to sit up; Fry quickly put his hand on her chest and held her down, "No, Munda says you should rest."

She lowered her eye and found her body covered in bandages, one wrapped around her shoulder and the others were secured tightly over her stomach and waist. She brought her attention back to Fry, "Who's Munda, and where are we?"

"The sewers. It turns out the Professor's jammer screwed up all the computers on the surface or something. Hospitals couldn't function without those computers and I brought you to the only other place I could think of. Down here wasn't affected because of the concrete or something so they could google how to help you."

"That's stupid Fry, concrete doesn't stop jammers nowadays."

"Oh", he looked at the floor and stared at his feet.

"What happened to Alley?"

"She got away…"

Leela took in her surroundings; she was in someone's living room. That much was clear. She was on the couch and Fry was sitting on a stool at her side. A cabinet with framed pictures, metals and all sorts of memorabilia was across the room from her. She almost overlooked who the pictures were of- almost. _Her._ They were all of her. Leela in the orphanarium, Leela at applied cryogenics, Leela in her apartment. She grew tense, "Fry, look."

He turned to the cabinet and looked at it for a few moments, "I didn't notice that until just now."

Leela sat up and reached for her laser pistol, but it wasn't in her belt. She spotted it across the room on a nightstand. She scrambled across the room past Fry, who'd just noticed she was up. She picked up the gun and made her way into the kitchen. She entered it and found two figures washing dishes in the sink.

"Who are you?!"

They spun around, one was a male, and he had a vertical mouth and one eye. His companion was a woman; she too had one eye, but tentacles for arms. They put their hands and tentacles up.

"Who are you?!"

Leela's eye began to water, did these mutants kill her parents, and did they know them? They weren't talking and that wasn't making Leela any more comfortable. Her hands were shaking and her aim was all over the place, but she kept the gun trained on the two sewer mutants.

"Answer me dammit!"

Fry burst into the room waving a picture in one hand and his gun in the other, "Wait Leela!"

She looked at Fry, "They killed my parents!"

He stuffed his gun into his coat upon realizing the situation wasn't as dire as he thought, he stepped in front of her and pushed the barrel of her gun down with his pointer finger, "No they didn't Leela. They _are_ your parents."

Fry held up the picture so she could see it. It was of the two mutants holding a one-eyed baby girl, her. Leela dropped her gun and stumbled backwards; she put one hand to her forehead and used the other to steady herself, "Oh my god."

Her parents hovered awkwardly at a distance, but Fry flagged them over and stepped back so Leela could meet them, "This is Munda", he gestured to the woman with the tentacles, "And this is Morris", he then gestured to Morris."

Leela just stared at them for a few moments, trying to decide if this was real, or all a dream. There was only one way to be sure. She reached out and hugged her parents. Fry smiled as her watched her embrace her parents for the first time… ever. Suddenly Morris reached out and grabbed the collar of his shirt, "Get in here you. You're as big a part of this family as any of us." Fry felt a bit uncomfortable hugging a bunch of crying cyclopes', but felt like being accepted by Leela's family was a good thing. He also felt a little strange watching Leela cry, it was a rare spectacle he'd only seen once or twice, but these were tears of joy- he'd never seen tears of joy before. She didn't regret it later either. She was just so overcome with happiness, for her entire life she'd been searching for them. She had finally found where she came from, even if it took being stabbed, shot, and fired (from applied cryogenics).

Later that Day…

"So I was out for a week?" Leela took a bit of whatever her mother made for dinner; she didn't care what it was. Her mother made it- _her mother, who she was talking to!_ Leela chewed the greyish mush and swallowed it.

"Yes sweetie", Munda took a sip of her champagne and smiled at her daughter.

"Yeah, we were worried that you wouldn't wake up. Poor Fry here never left your side; Munda had to bring him his food so he didn't starve."

"And the bucket, don't forget the bucket", Fry added with a little too much pride.

Morris chuckled and glanced at Leela, "So how long have you two been… ya know", he trailed off, obviously uncomfortable with the topic of dating, but still interested in his daughter's business.

Leela laughed a bit, but stopped and winced when a pain shot up her side, her injuries still hurt, "We're not dating dad."

"Oh, it just seemed that way with the way he talks about you and how he wouldn't get up from your side and all."

Fry's face went pale and her choked on his champagne. He franticly mopped it up off his face with his sleeve so he wouldn't receive unwanted attention. There was a thump from under the table as Munda kicked Morris in the shin, "Come on now Morris. Can't you see that you're embarrassing him?"

"Oh, sorry, I guess he hasn't told you how he feels then Leela."

"No, he hasn't", Leela looked a Fry. What had he told her father that made him think that they were… dating? Probably something stupid, she told herself. Leave it to Fry to make the wrong impression.

There was another thump and Morris winced, "He's not going to want to come back if you keep embarrassing him Morris."

"Ya know what, I think I need some fresh air", Fry excused himself, stood up and walked out onto the porch, leaving Leela alone with her parents.

"What did he tell you?" She asked sternly, eyeing her mother and father.

"He went on and on about how wonderful you were. How smart and talented you were, and how you could kick anyone's ass. Yeah, he just spent most of his time either talking to you or about you."

"Really?"

"Leela darling, all Morris is trying to say is that that boy looks up to you. Right Morris, we just met our daughter and we're going to let her meet someone on her own."

"Yeah, I just thought… you know…"

"Let me go check on him", Leela got up from the table and joined Fry on the porch. He was leaning against a support, enjoying a smoke. She smiled at the sight; it was something you could get used to easily. He exhaled and looked back at her; as soon as he spotted her he got a panicked look on his face and avoided her eye.

"Hey", she leaned against the house across from him, "My parents really like you."

"I had seven days to get to know them."

It suddenly occurred to Leela that Fry had met her parents before her, so he'd known them longer. It was a trivial matter, and she pushed it to the back of her mind.

"Thanks for staying with me", she sighed and looked up at the porch's decrepit roofing.

"I just thought that if you heard a familiar voice you'd wake up", he finally raised his head and made eye contact with her, "Sorry."

"For what?" Leela couldn't understand why he was apologizing to her, he hadn't done anything wrong- that she knew of. Had he messed up the space time continuum, or destroyed the city? Then she realized why he was apologizing. He liked her. She'd been trying to deny it for weeks, but it just kept creeping back into conversation. He felt guilty for liking her, which might have been the worst part. He wasn't allowed to like her, it was against _the rules._ She'd told him it was best not to get close to her, but he had, and now he'd gone and fallen for her… great. She didn't have a problem with it, but she didn't want it. Fry was irresponsible, immature and a whole load of other bad things. She looked into his eyes, he _really was sorry, _"Don't be, you haven't done anything wrong."

"Yeah, sure…", I just fell for the wrong person, he wanted to add, but didn't. That may have been the worst part for him, the fact that he was self-aware of it all. He knew it was happening, but couldn't do anything about it, "Just blabbed to the wrong dad."

Leela chuckled, "He sure is a talker", she stood up and hung near him for a moment, then hugged him, "Thanks for everything Fry. I appreciate it."

He smiled and snuffed out his cigarette, then tossed it into the green river that ran passed Leela's parents' house.

"Let's go finish dinner."

**Wow, this took forever. I'm going to go back to my other story for a bit and hopefully finish it, but I hope this was a good 'season finale' for this story. I'll pick this up again once I finish or get fed up with 'One" again.**


	6. It Came From The Fridge

**I tried, but I just can't stay away from this story- it's just too much fun to write. With that said I'll just have to write two stories at once. Anyway here's 'season 2'.**

Episode 6: It came from the Fridge

November 9, 3000

Fry sliced into his 'pancake' and skewered a piece with his fork. He slowly brought it to his mouth and bit into it- not bad for being made from rats and mold. He chewed it and gave Munda a nod, "Excellent food Mrs. Turanga."

"Really? That means a lot coming from someone who lives on the surface."

"Oh, I haven't had real rat in ages. Reminds me of my mother's cooking", he stared blankly at his plate.

"Yeah, Munda sure knows her way around a kitchen", Morris added through a mouthful of breakfast. Of all the 'people' eating breakfast Leela seemed to be enjoying it the least. It had taken some time to set in, but she realized it now. _She had no rights._ She was a mutant- the scum of society. Her parents explained the story of her birth and how she could never state her true origin to anyone.

Of all the people who could have been there with her she was glad Fry was the one. He'd never been bothered by her eye, and she suspected that this would mean nothing to him- she'd still be Leela, _The Woman He'd Fallen For._ That was weird too, now that she thought about it. Her best friend had fallen for her. It should have been obvious, with the constant hounding and the not-always-so-subtle advances. He had boyish charm- she had to give him that –but that was about it. He was stupid, irresponsible, and… human. He was human. She wasn't. She realized how deeply she was thinking about Fry and pulled her mind back into reality.

"Leela, you've barely touched your pancakes, what's wrong", Munda had only met her daughter a few days ago, but she could already tell when something was bothering the girl, mother's intuition maybe. Munda put one of her tentacles on Leela's shoulder and gave it a reassuring pat.

"Nothing, just thinking about you guys", she lied, but did her best to cover it up- which wasn't very good. Everyone in the room could tell- save maybe Morris, he had a tendency to be oblivious to female emotions and feeling. No one dared to call her out on it though, except Fry.

"No you're not", he blurted out before shoving another forkful of pancake in his mouth. Leela stiffened, she wasn't used to being caught doing something she wasn't proud of- but why wasn't she proud of thinking of Fry? He was her best friend, and relevant to her situation.

"You're right Fry, I wasn't. I was thinking about my boot, and how many doctors it's going to take to get it out of your ass."

Fry swallowed, "Jeez Leela."

Morris chuckled, "You must take the temper from your mother. You should hear her go off about my skin flakes."

"Speaking of which", Munda glared at Morris who had subconsciously begun scratching the back of his neck, sending bits of dead skin sailing across the table and floor. He stopped abruptly once his wife pointed the behavior out to him, "Sorry dear."

Fry took it upon himself to change the subject to something more friendly, "Do you think the professor will have more work for us when we get back to the surface?"

"No doubt", she responded stiffly, as she pushed her pancake around with her fork, "No doubt it'll probably nearly kill us too."

Morris chuckled and gave his opinion on the topic, "Sounds like you two need better jobs."

"No, I actually enjoy my job", Leela pushed her pancake to the far edge of her plate; she twirled her fork and reversed the pancake's direction. Fry decided that he should add his own input on the subject, "Yeah, me too. I get to use this baby all the time."

Fry reached into his jacket and took out Wisconsin; he held the gun up so that Munda and Morris could admire it for a moment or two. He received a collective gasp and wide eyed stares from the couple. Then he laid the gun flat on the table and slid it to Morris. Despite disapproving glares from Munda and Leela, Morris inspected the gun, "Excellent craftsmanship, where did you get this?"

"That's a story all on its own", Fry replied with a smile, as Morris set the gun down and passed it back to him. Fry realized that Leela had been glaring at him the entire time, but he simply refused to look at her, rendering the infamous Leela death stare powerless.

"Leela, how dangerous is your profession?"Munda asked nervously eyeing her daughter from across the table.

"Not that dangerous, we only have to use our guns two or three times a day."

"Oh my", Munda brought her tentacles to her mouth in shock.

"Oh, believe me Mrs. Turanga. I wouldn't let anyone hurt Leela without having to kill me first."

"That's sweet of you Fry, but it really wouldn't be necessary. I can handle myself."

Fry helped Leela up onto the ladder and she began to climb towards the surface. Fry was perfectly content with climbing up after her- for obvious reasons. Once she reached the top she pushed the manhole out of the way and climbed onto the street. She turned around and helped pull Fry up onto the street with her. The two friends were at work in a matter of minutes. The professor was in the midst of lecturing Bender about sex in the workplace when Fry and Leela entered the conference room. The professor stopped mid rant and looked at Fry and Leela for a few moments before he registered who they were, "Oh, Hello."

"Hi professor", the two greeted the old man and they took their respective seats at the conference table.

"Seems like you're still breathing Leela", Farnsworth said, adjusting his glasses, "No obvious signs of death."

"Yeah, those mutant doctors know what they're doing."

"Oh my yes, they have to."

Fry's stomach grumbled and he got up from the table. He made his way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. As he did so a giant lobster leapt out at him. It swung its claws at him and he dodged it, stumbling backwards. The lobster was dressed in a doctor's coat and had sandals on, but Fry wasn't concerned with what the creature was wearing. It snipped at him again and he jumped backwards. Leela had stood up and drawn her pistol by now. She leveled it at the creature and squeezed the trigger. Her shot missed, but it was enough to startle the beast. It made a whooping noise and scuttled out of the room, clacking its claws over its head. Farnsworth immediately hit a button on his console and the metal shielding rolled over the windows, trapping everyone inside the building, "No one leaves until that thing is dead!"

Bender opened his chest compartment and took out a submachine gun, a few grenades, and several spare magazines of ammunition for the gun. He placed them on the table and then loaded his gun. Fry had recovered from nearly being killed and turned to Leela, "Thanks for saving my life."

"Don't mention it."

Before they could carry out any more conversation the air ducts began to rumble from above. Leela and Fry pointed their guns at the ceiling and fired off a salvo. The rumbling stopped and a flock of now-dead owls fell to the hangar floor, "Just some owls", Leela let out a breath she'd been holding.

"Has anyone seen one of those things before?" Leela asked, looking around the room at her coworkers.

"Yeah, in my lunch", a figure stepped from the shadows, holding a mop. He was wearing a blue janitor jumpsuit and had a red hat on, possibly his most distinguishing feature was the thick, grey mustache under his nose.

"Who the hell are you?" Leela asked, pointing her gun at the man.

"I'm Scruffy. The janitor", he scratched his nose and leaned against the nearest wall.

"I've never seen you before."

"And I've never seen you before either lady."

"If you're a janitor, why aren't you moping or something?"

"I'm on break."

"God damn union workers", She mumbled, before turning back to the rest of her coworkers, "Does anyone important know what that thing was?"

Everyone shook their head and she began pacing in an attempt to formulate a plan. Fry let the empty clip fall from his gun and clang to the floor, he quickly place another one in the gun and cocked it. That's when he heard a crash from the lounge.

"No! The T.V is in there", he shouted, running into the room with his gun at the ready. Sure enough, the television lay on the floor, its screen cracked. Shattered glass lay all over the floor, but Fry rushed to the television's side, "No!"

"That's the cornerstone of our friendship! How else will we avoid work?" Bender asked, kneeling beside him next to the television. Leela rolled her eye and walked up behind the two mourning friends. She placed a hand on Fry's shoulder and said the first thing that came to mind, "I'm sorry Fry, it was a good T.V"

"The best", Bender sniffled- if that was even possible for a robot. Leela made a mental note to ask him about it later. Then there was a bloodcurdling shout of agony from the conference room, and the lights shut off. Leela pressed a button on her communicator and it began to glow a radioactive green color. She raised her gun and slowly led Fry and Bender back into the conference room. Farnsworth was huddled in the corner and the janitor was gone.

"It got Scruffy", the professor murmured, still in shock from what Leela assumed was a brutal attack. Leela helped the old man to his feet and started giving orders, "Fry try to get the lights running again. Bender, watch the door while I talk to the professor."

Bender grumbled something about stupid one-eyed aliens and then headed over towards the door. Fry took a glow stick from a cabinet drawer and activated it and made his way down to the basement where the fuse box was located. He disappeared into the black, leaving Leela alone with Bender and the professor, "Alright, tell me what happened."

The old man opened his mouth, but stopped before he said anything. He raised a shaky arm and pointed in the direction of Bender. Leela spun around to see Bender tapping his foot impenitently and staring at her. Behind him was the lobster. Before she had a chance to shout, it seized him and dragged him away. The robot kicked violently and screamed, but it was no use. Leela chased after him, but she couldn't find either of them anywhere- it was as if they had disappeared. She slowly crept through the halls of the Planet Express building, searching for the beast. She was in an empty, pitch black save for her communicator's light, hallway when she heard rustling from the professor's lab. She tiptoed towards it and opened the door. Red emergency lights flashed all throughout the lab, giving it an ominous feeling. She ignored this and pressed on, keeping her gun at eye level. Then she came across the source of the noise, a box in the corner of the room was shaking violently. It was defiantly big enough to house a giant lobster so she kept her gun ready. She slowly moved towards it, but the rustling stopped once she got within a meter of the box. She reached out with one hand and swatted at the box, knocking it over. A small black mass jumped at her and latched onto her face. She was able to pry it off with some effort and realized it was only Nibbler, "You scared the shit out of me you little rodent", she scolded her pet.

Another scream resonated throughout the building. She sprinted out of the lab and back to the conference room to find it completely deserted. She lowered her gun, "Damn."

The lights flickered, and then shut off, once again submerging her in total darkness, "Fry!"

She threw open the basement door and rushed down the stairs. As she descended the stairs she heard a scream, "Oh No!"

She finally reached the bottom to find Fry sitting in the corner of the room, his glow stick lay a few feet away from him, as did a magazine titled, 'Unique Knockers'. He pointed at the magazine, "Make it stop!"

She cocked her head to the side, "What?"

"That!", he continued pointing at the magazine, and she sighed, "I thought you were actually in trouble."

"Yours don't look like that do they?"

She massaged her temples; Fry could be really annoying sometimes, "No."

"Okay. …Where is everyone else?"

"Whatever the hell that thing was took them… to god knows where."

Fr swallowed and went back over to the fuse box, "In retrospect, it may have been a better idea to send Bender down here to replace the fuse."

"Bender would have just gotten high off of the electricity, and you would have been the one that that thing took."

"So you sent me down here to protect me?"

"No, I'd ju-", Leela's sentence was cut off as a red mass hurled down the stairs and let out a horrifying cry. Leela pointed her gun at it and fired. Her pistol's laser round singed the crustacean's shell, but it didn't stop or even slow the beast down. Fry stepped in front of her, drawing his pistol as her did. He herded her behind him with his left arm as his right brought the Beretta to bear on his foe, "If you want her, you'll have to go through me."

The crab kept coming and Fry pulled the trigger a few times, the bullets either bounced off of the creature's shell, or they had little effect. Either way, there was no stopping it. Fry backed up, taking Leela with him.

"I didn't see this coming- killed by a crab. Really, I didn't."

"It's some way to go", Leela added, he turned and looked at her. It seemed like he still had so much he wanted to say, but couldn't. She felt herself lean in towards him and watched as he did the same. She closed her eye- there were worse ways to die than while kissing Fry.

"Ah, two more friends in one sitting? It must be my lucky day", the lobster stated, excitedly snipping his claws.

_Friends?_ Leela stopped leaning towards Fry, turned her head, and opened her eye. Fry didn't and his head bumped into the side of hers, "Ow."

"Friends", she inquired, confused by the lobster's sudden change in behavior. He was no longer closing in on them like he was ready to cut them to pieces, now it was more like… a hug. The though came to Leela too slowly and the crab embraced her and Fry, "Let's go introduce you to my other friends."

The crab released them and they cautiously followed him up the stairs and into the conference room where everyone was in their respective seats. Suddenly the lights flickered back on, revealing a happy birthday banner, cake, confetti and everything else associated with a surprise birthday party. Everyone except Bender, and the professor, jumped from their seats and shouted, "Happy Birthday Leela!"

Bender waited for the confetti and cheers to subside before he gave Leela his own birthday wish, "Congrats Big Boots. You survived another trip around the sun", he threw some confetti into the air and disappeared into the lounge. Leela turned around, she'd already figured out who planned this. Fry backed away and put his hands up defensively, "It's better than just guessing when your birthday was."

"Did my parents tell you?"

"Yeah, I said you didn't know when your birthday was and they told me. The professor even got a few of his old employees to come back."

"Really?"

Fry gestured to the lobster, "That is Dr. Zoidberg", he pointed across the room to a man who appeared to be from somewhere the Caribbean, "That's Hermes Conrad; he's the bureaucrat that the professor's always talking about."

The Jamaican accountant heard his name and made his way across the room to join Fry and Leela's conversation.

"That's right Leela. Wit' the money from your 'accident', the professor was able to rehire me… and unfortunately Zoidberg", the Jamaican jerked his thumb at the crab.

Fry leaned against the wall and smiled at Leela, she was smiling too. He'd seen her smile a lot recently- it was weird, but it was a sight that you could easily get used to. She didn't seem like she knew what to do and Fry was a little curious why, "Leela, why don't you go enjoy your party. Eat some cake, it's free."

Leela opened her mouth to interject, but Fry cut her off, "Free cake Leela. As in you don't have to pay for it."

"I know what free means Fry."

"Okay, because you're still talking to me. You should be enjoying your party", Fry stood up and made his way to the fridge. He dug through it and retrieved a slurm. He was a little surprised to see Leela still standing where he'd left her, so he strolled back across the room to talk to her again, "Is something bothering you Leela?"  
"No… it's just… I've never had a birthday party before… ", she kept her eye fixed on her boots- like there was something really interesting about them. Fry stared at them, but couldn't see what she was looking at, "Leela, it's real easy. Here", he handed her his slurm. She hesitantly took the can and popped the top. She took a sip, then downed the rest of the can and crumpled it. She tossed it into a trash receptacle and turned to Fry for the next activity.

"Well, If my birthdays from back in the nineties were anything to go by then we need to have some drinking contests", Fry dragged Leela over to the conference table and sat her down, "I'll be right back with round one."

Fry disappeared into the basement and returned with and armful of assorted alcohol. The bottles ranged from bourbon to vodka, and everything in between. He disappeared again and returned with enough shot glasses for everyone- even Zoidberg. Everyone took their seats at the conference table and Fry poured everyone's first round. By the twelfth round Fry was speaking some weird dialect of English, the professor was asleep, Hermes was vomiting in the bathroom, Scruffy was mopping up vomit, Zoidberg was passed out, Leela was on the verge of passing out, and Bender was laughing at his coworkers for their 'low' alcohol tolerance.

"Ha, you're all a bunch of lightweights", the robot stood up on the table and snatched a bottle of scotch from Fry, who was beginning to pour the next round.

"Heyyy, I-I… was gunna drink 'at wit' eela", he stammered, shaking his finger at the Bending unit.

"You've had enough to drink Fry, I'm just watching out for your health", the robot glugged down what was left in the bottle and belched fire.

"Anks", Fry gave Bender a sloppy salute and reached into his jacket. He withdrew a flask from the jackets inner pocket, slowly screwed off the top and poured himself a shot. Most of the liquid in the flask ended up on the table, but he was able to pour Leela and Bender a shot too. He raised his shot glass into the air, and after several attempts he managed to produce a comprehendible sentence, "Too Leela."

**In the next episode Fry and Leela meet a Fembot from Bender's past, **_**bent**_** on revenge.**


	7. Lady in Black

**I woke up to watch the lunar eclipse and have a beer, but rain has forced a change of plans. Anyway, here I am, and here is another chapter. Sorry it's kind of short.**

Episode 7: Lady in Black

December 3, 3000

Bender took a drag from his cigar and blew out a puff of smoke. He kicked his legs up on the dashboard and turned his attention to Fry. That boy was so lost. He sat in the navigator's seat, where he usually did, and was staring at the ship's captain, also usual for him. Bender chuckled to get himself some attention and waited until Fry looked at him.

"Hey buddy", the robot began, "You know where we're going? Big Boots doesn't seem all too excited, and that makes me think that actual work may be involved with this job."

"It will", Leela snapped, "We're going to crash a mob party to catch some bum that works for the Donbot."

"T-the Donbot?"

"Yes, the Donbot. Did I stutter?", Leela glared at the bending unit from her seat behind the yolk, Bender had sat up at the mention of the Donbot.

"We can't go there. We'll be killed", he had to convince Leela to turn the ship around- there was no way he was going to deal with the mafia.

"No, we won't. Because we happen to have a trump card… the Donbot knows that this sleezball's been bedding his wife, so he doesn't care that we're crashing his daughter's wedding to catch him."

Bender looked nervously around the bridge; all attention was on him. Isn't that what he wanted? No, this was bad attention, he was going to die. He stood up and made his way to the cabin that he shared with Fry. He rooted through Fry's clothes and found some spare clothes. He pulled Fry's jacket on over his metallic upper body. His next objective was to get some pants. He picked up a pair of jeans and tried to get them on, but couldn't. His footcups were too big to fit in the leg holes. He swore under his breath and went on to the next human's room. He made sure that he was quiet while he was in Leela's room; fortunately he'd stolen from her before and knew where everything in her room was. He opened a dresser at the side of her bed- bingo – it was filled with her signature black stretch-pants. He easily pulled them on and made his way back to the bridge, taking his seat once again. It took a moment for Fry to notice Bender was wearing his jacket, but called him out on it none the less, "Bender, why are you in my jacket?"

"I was cold", Bender opened his chest compartment and took a beer out. He popped the lid off and chugged it, "Damn… it's warm."

Leela had turned around to see what all the fuss was about and immediately noticed Bender in her pants, "Bender, you're in my pants."

"Yeah, so… your pregnancy pants are the only pants that fit me."

"Pregnancy pants?"

"Yeah, I can it my footcups in them."

"Pregnancy pants", Leela mumbled to herself as she turned back around and returned her attention to flying.

"Leela, your pants are fine, they don't make you look pregnant at all… they… don't leave a lot to the imagination either", Fry said with a raise of the eyebrow and a smirk. Leela jerked the yolk to the left, and then quickly back to the right. Fry smacked his head on the dashboard in front of him and Bender fell out of his seat- which hurt his self-esteem, "Both of you shut up."

Bender climbed back into his seat and frowned at Leela, "Bitch", he mumbled as he lit up a cigar.

Finally after a seemingly eternal awkward silence Leela set the ship down outside of the Donbot's glamorous estate. Fry disembarked without a quarrel, but Leela stopped Bender before he could leave, "You're not going anywhere dressed like that", she gestured to his ridiculous outfit. Bender shook his head in defiance, "No, I'm not taking it off."

"Not even for some booze?", she asked, dangling a bottle of scotch in front of him like someone teasing a dog.

"I guess, it's worth it for free booze", Bender stripped off the clothes and took the bottle from Leela, following her to the front gate where Fry stood in wait.

A large brown robot with multiple gold chains hanging from his neck approached them, "You the guys from Planet Express?"

Leela nodded, "That's us."

"Wait until the Donbot's daughter kisses the groom before you take Lorenzo in."

Leela nodded and led her team to the wedding reception where plastic folding chairs were set up for the audience to sit in while the marriage proceeded. They sat in the back, with Leela getting the aisle seat, and Fry sitting next to her with Bender to his other side. The bride and the groom wrote their own vows and the procession dragged on for an agonizing six hours. Somewhere in the second hour Fry fell asleep and gradually leaned more and more towards Leela, until he was leaning on her shoulder- sleeping. She'd occasionally push him back to an upright position, but he'd always lean back over eventually, so she gave up. Then he started to drool. She shoved him back to a sitting position that time, and woke him up in the process. His waking moments were short lived as he'd mumble a sloppy 'sorry' before going right back to sleep. Bender on the other hand was wide awake, his eyes darting from one robot to another, making sure that a certain fembot wasn't there. Once the couple kissed and signed the wedding license Leela woke Fry and drew her gun, then motioned for Bender to follow them. He complied- the sooner they caught this guy, the sooner he'd be out of the party. Leela made her way to the front of the reception area and found her target, a short and plump robot of a light green color. She leapt from the crowd and tackled him, clicking handcuffs into place on his hands as she did so. Fry and Bender Dragged him onto the ship and Leela took off, "Wow, that was… easy."

"Yeah, normally someone would have been shot by now", Fry added, gesturing to Leela's wound that was still healing from her encounter with Alley.

The trip back to New New York was just as uneventful, and the crew turned their prisoner in for a hefty sum. They were situated back at the Planet Express building when Bender began acting up again. He'd pace the building and move from window to window, looking out each for a few seconds before moving on to the next. He'd also mumble things which worried Fry, considering Bender never got nervous- it took a lot to bother the robot. Finally, once he and Fry said goodbye to Leela and went home for the night, he relaxed. He flopped onto the couch and turned on the television. Hypnotoad was on, but that had been on the decline since season three so his searched for the remote so he could put on something else- preferably something with Claculon.

"Looking for this?", asked a female voice. Bender looked to the dark corner of the apartment where the voice had come from and saw a woman. She was a robot with long brown hair, and was dressed in an all-black dress. Bells sounded as she stepped out of the shadows, she had the remote.

"Bella…"

"Yes… it's me…"

Fry returned from the kitchen with a bowl of bachelor chow and was preparing to sit down when he saw what was on the television, "Bender change the channel, the plot on this show stopped making sense after season threeeeee", Fry stretched out the 'e' in three as long as possible to fill the awkward silence and give his brain time to think of what to do. He tossed his bowl of bachelor chow and took out his Beretta. He pointed it at the fembot, "Who the hell is this Bender?"

"I'm Bella", she answered for Bender, who was either too shocked or too terrified to say anything, "I'm not surprised he's never mentioned me."

Bender raised a finger, but Bella raised a laser pistol and pointed it at him, "Don't you dare open your god damn mouth! You had the past six years to do that, now it's my turn you bastard!"

"Woah! Calm down!" Fry shouted, waving his gun to make it clear to her that he had it.

"Yeah I see your gun, and honestly I don't give a shit. If you have a problem with me you can bite my sexy metal ass."

"Um… tempting… but no", Fry resumed pointing the gun at her, "Would someone mind explaining what the hell is going on here?"

"Bender is going to get his just dessert, that's what's going on."

"Bender is a robot lady. Robots don't have to eat."

"It's a figure of speech stupid!", she shouted, waving the gun wildly, before bringing it back to Bender's head.

"A what?"

"A figure of god damn speech, how clear do I need to make myself? Is my language processer malfunctioning?"

"No, you're speaking crazy just fine!", Fry pointed shook the gun a little, to emphasize the fact that he was ready to use it.

"Crazy? You think I'm crazy? No… I'm a byproduct of Bender! He made me this way!"

"Baby-", Bender began, but Bella took a step forward and touched the gun to his chest.

"Don't you Baby me! I'm over you, you're sexy seductive charm won't work on me anymore."

"Prove it!", Fry shouted without thinking, he wasn't sure if it was the right thing to say, but it seemed right.

"Fine!", she set the gun on the couch, took Bender in her arms and kissed him. Neither pulled away and the kissing soon 'elevated'. Fry cleared his throat, "What the hell is going on?"

Bender pulled Fry aside and whispered to him, "Bella's my ex from days gone by. I left her six years ago, because I was afraid I'd do something to get her father to want me dead. She seems… different now", Bender said with a smile.

"You mean like how she tried to _KILL_ you?"

"No, no, I mean how in charge she is. She used to be so… passive and non-violent… I wonder if she steals", he turned away from Fry for a moment and spoke up, "Hey Bella, do you steal things?"

"Yeah, I stole this gun", she held up the gun she'd threatened him with a few minutes earlier.

"Ooooh… so hot", Bender shivered, and then stuck a roll of what appeared to be hundreds of dollars in Fry's hands, "_Don't _come back tonight."

"And that's why I'm here and not at the apartment", Fry scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"So let me get this straight Fry", Leela didn't move from her doorway, "You and Bender's psycho ex had a standoff, then she somehow turned him on and he kicked you out so he could nail her- probably on _your_ bed"

"Essentially", Fry didn't seem fazed by Leela's, on _your_ bed, comment- which was specifically aimed to make him feel bad.

"Oh Lord, you can some in for coffee. And only a cup, I need to go shopping", she stepped out of the doorway, allowing him to enter. She hadn't changed a thing; her apartment was still just as devoid of furniture as it had been in his last visit. Fry sat down at her small kitchen table and took his cup of coffee from her once she brought it to him. She took a pack of cigarettes from her coat, which was hung on her chair, and lit a cigarette, "I really have to stop this."

"Meh", Fry took the cigarette from her and took a drag before handing it back, "It's not that bad."

"Yes it is. I have parents now and- and", she didn't seem to be able to finish her sentence, she only just met her parents and she didn't want to disappoint them with her bad habits.

"You don't want to disappoint them", he said in the most nonchalant manor possible, as if he knew what she was thinking better than she did.

"Yeah", she took a pull and exhaled, blowing wispy grey smoke into the air.

Fry took a drink of his coffee, then another. Eventually he raised the cup to his lips but no liquid hit them. He moved the cup away from his mouth and looked into it- empty –damn. Leela looked at the empty cup then the clock: 2:39 am.

"Shit it's late."

"Or early", Fry smiled and stood up, Leela did the same. She led him to the door and opened it for him.

"Thanks for a nice, cheap night", he waved goodbye and started off down the hall towards the elevator.

"No problem Fry", Leela called after him, before she shut her door and leaned against it. There was something weird about all that. There had been nothing sexual about it Fry's behavior, yet every movement of his body seemed to scream 'I like you', or 'please ask me to stay'. She'd done a good job not drawing any attention to this then, but it was eating at her now. Was it just her? Had Fry simply wanted to sleep with a friend rather than in a hotel? If so couldn't he have gone to sleep at his nephew's? She'd never know now that he was in the elevator. She leaned against her door. They'd talked for hours, and she hadn't even realized it. She slid into a sitting position and hugged her knees, "What are you thinking", she murmured.

Fry stepped into the elevator and pushed the lobby button. He decided now as a good time as any to see _exactly_ how much spending money Bender had given him. He took the wad of cash from his jacket's inner pocket and unrolled it. The wad was composed of nine ones with a hundred wrapped around the outside, "Dammit Bender, giving me the old Jersey trick."

**In the next episode parasitic worms infest the city. **


	8. Tremors

**Sorry for the long update time, my cousin's kid came to live with me for his spring break so my hands were kind of full. I just finished outlining this whole story so yippee for me. Anyway, here is a new chapter/episode. **

Episode 8: Tremors

January 1, 3001

"Touchdown Michigan! The Rose Bowl is tied again!"

Fry cheered and held up his corn dog in triumph, before taking a bite of it. Even though Fry would rather see Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, he'd gladly cheer for another Big Ten team, since they were always the underdogs in the big game. As he chewed the corndog, he spotted Leela giving him a disapproving stare. He ignored the fact that his mouth was brimming with food and began a conversation with her, "Whaa?"

"You're going to regret eating that."

"Maybe I will, but that won't stop me from eating it", he took another bite of the corndog and chewed it slowly, to rub the fact that he didn't care in her face.

"Fine", she threw he hands in the air and leaned back on the couch, "See if I care when you get parasites."

Bender emerged from the back of the apartment and jumped onto the couch between Fry and Leela, "What did I miss?"

"The game is tied again", Fry finished off his corndog and dropped the stuffed the stick into one of the couch cushions. Leela took a drink of her beer and let out a refreshed sigh. Bender opened his chest compartment and took out a cigar for himself. He lit it and took a few puffs, filling the room with smoke. Fry used this as an excuse to get out of the living room for a moment. He stood up and walked across the apartment to the fridge and procured a beer for himself- he actually took two so no one would have to get up when Leela needed one. He waved the extra beer around by Leela's head until she realized that he was offering it to her, "Thanks Fry, but I'm not done with mine yet."

"I know. I just got this for when you're done."

"Wait, what?"

"I got this for when you are done drinking your current beer", Fry repeated, but slower. He realized that both Bender and Leela were giving him stunned looks, "What?"

"Fry, are you… thinking?"  
Fry took a moment to process their preposterous accusations before he realized that he had in fact, thought ahead. He dropped the beverages and they crashed to the floor, shattering. He took a few steps back until her backed himself into the corner of the apartment. Leela stood up and cautiously approached him; she put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Are you alright Fry?"

"I don't know, let me think about that."

"He's not alright", Bender interjected from across the room.

"Doctor Zoidberg, can medicine help poor Fry here?"

"Preferably in time to see the end of the Rose Bowl, I've got five-hundred bucks riding on Michigan", Bender added. He opened his chest cabinet and took out a watch, "So you've got an hour."

The crab consulted his clipboard for a few moments before he spoke again, "The thinking may be the result of this growth in his skull."

He turned the clipboard around so Leela, Bender and Fry could see what he was talking about; it was a scan of his skull and brain.

"That looks like an ordinary brain", Leela stated, failing to see the problem that the crab did.

"Ordinary, you mean that's supposed to be there?"

"Yes, it's his brain", she rolled her eye and sighed, "Why did we even bother?"

"Because the wait to see a real doctor is ridiculous", Bender opened his chest compartment once more and removed a beer from it. He glugged it down and tossed the empty bottle aside, "So is there an actual problem, or has Fry simply developed a life skill?"

Zoidberg ignored Bender's question; he was still hurt from his previous comment, "I am a real doctor. I have a degree in Healthology from the Institute of Health Online."

"Well what's wrong with him, if anything?" Leela asked, trying to get the conversation back on track. She really wasn't in the mood for Bender's shenanigans right now.

"I just assumed that the growth in his skull was the problem since I was positive it couldn't be the one in his colon."

"What", Leela pulled the clipboard from the decopod's claws and perused the pictures clipped to the clipboard.

"Fry", Leela asked, stopping at a specific picture, "Do you remember when I said you'd regret eating that corndog?"

"Yes", Fry answered from the examination table where he'd been patently sitting the entire time.

"You've got worms", she held up the clipboard so he could see the image. It depicted a vast city, spanning the entirety of his colon and stomach with a few scattered towns in his brain.

Fry cringed a little and recoiled from the image and stared at the operating room floor, "Is there any way to get rid of them?"

"A purge", Zoidberg stated with pride, "If you have a rapid intestinal purge you should expel the parasites."

The three best friends all gave Zoidberg shocked looks; he'd actually said something that made medical sense. Fry's mouth must have been hanging open because Leela pulled his chin up, "So what might do that doctor?"

"Nothing empties the boules like alleyway tacos", the crab rubbed his stomach with his claws and closed his eyes. He waltzed out of the office leaving Leela, Bender and now Fry, to decide what to do.

"As much as I'd love to see Fry empty his boules, this is a two person op, why don't you take him Leela. I can keep you posted on the game", before she could answer Bender took off toward Robot Arms Apartments. She was left alone with Fry. She really should have been used to being stuck with Fry by now, but she wasn't. Every time she did anything with Fry it was always something new or at least turned out differently than the last time she'd done it. She took a deep breath, "Alright Fry, let's get going."

It had been nearly five minutes without a single word uttered. The only noise was that of Fry humming 'Walking on Sunshine' continuously. He'd gone through the entire song at least twice and he didn't show any signs of stopping. The silence was killing her, "So… um, how's the old thinker treating you?"

"Fine", he sighed, "Now that I think about stuff, it's harder to understand why I always act so impulsively."

"Really", Leela was a bit stunned by Fry's sudden revelation and stopped in her tracks.

"Yeah, I've nearly gotten myself killed a couple times", he stopped in his tracks after he realized that she was no longer beside him, "It's harder to see how I let myself nearly kill you."

She blushed; Fry was flattering now that he thought about things. There was that word again, _now_. This wasn't Fry. Yes, now he had brains to make up for mediocre looks, but this wasn't him. He wasn't _her _Fry. Leela mentally stopped herself, he wasn't hers. He couldn't be, and that's the way it had to stay. They needed to get to that taco stand as quickly as possible, before she changed her mind. Fry had approached her, cautiously, and was inspecting her to see if she was alright, "Are you feeling well?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get to that taco stand", she forced herself to move forward, grabbing Fry by the jacket and dragging him after her. She was able to let go after a moment or two as Fry regained his footing and fell into step with her.

Fry and Leela finally came to a halt on the corner of a dark alley and a main road. In the shadows sat a taco stand. Leela and Fry stepped into the shadows and Fry spoke up, "I'll get two tacos."

"Two?" Leela narrowed her eye, there was no way she was going to eat a taco from a taco stand in an alley.

"Yeah, in case one doesn't work", he responded as if it was obvious.

Bender burst into the apartment and dove onto the couch. He franticly searched for the remote and turned on the television; the Rose Bowl was still on. More importantly, Michigan was now winning. He bounced up and down with glee- he was only a quarter away from winning big. He shifted on the couch and a sharp pain struck his side. He stood up and saw that a corndog stick was cracked in two pieces underneath him, "Fry needs to learn to clean up after himself."

The bending unit picked up the broken stick and tossed it out of the apartment window. Little did Bender know that this simple gesture would have unforeseen consequences. The piece of wood tumbled through the air and was caught by a gust of wind. It was carried out of the city limits and floated into the reservoir. Instantly, the parasitic life forms dwelling on the stick began to expand their empire into the water- contaminating it. Bender leaned back and took a long pull from his cigar; it was at that point that Fry and Leela entered the apartment. They both looked tired; they'd obviously run the whole way to the apartment. Fry immediately made a break for the bathroom leaving Leela to make herself comfortable with Bender, "So Fry should be back to normal when he gets out of the bathroom. That's if Zoidberg is actually right about something for once."

"For once", the robot echoed, not moving his optics from the television.

"Were you even worried about him? Do you even care?"

"Do I look like a caring robot to you eyeball?", he still didn't look away from the television, "Look Leela, as soon as this game is over I'll ask Fry how he's doing. Michigan is winning by a touchdown with a couple of minutes to go, so it won't be long."

Leela sighed and sat down on the couch next to Bender. The robot never said it, he sometimes even said the opposite, but Leela believed that he truly did care for his fleshy friend. Leela heard a flush and then a few moments later Fry emerged from the bathroom, "Parasites expelled", he announced proudly.

"That's a relief", Leela spoke, even though it wasn't necessary. For some reason she felt like it was necessary to state that the worms needed to go out loud, as if to convince herself that it had been for the better. He'd only been intelligent for an hour, if that, but it had been long enough for him to bother her.

"Touchdown USC, the game is going to overtime!"

"Dammit!", Bender shouted, throwing his cigar to the apartment floor. Before it could take the entire building down in flames Leela picked it up and snuffed it out on the arm of the couch. Bender hadn't noticed, he'd been too angry. Bender stormed off to the kitchen to make himself a drink- a strong one. He took a shot glass from the cabinet and filled it with ice cubes from the ice cube dispenser hooked up to the fridge. He searched the apartment for a few desperate moments before he located a bottle of scotch. He filled the glass up and drank the shot in one gulp. Sensors went off in his brain alerting him that there were trace amounts of contaminant in his drink; the most likely source being the ice cubes. He zoomed his optics in on the ice cube and was shocked to see tiny worms frozen in them. He picked up a cube and rushed to the living room, "Hey guys look. There are worms in the ice cubes."

Fry and Leela gravitated towards him and stared into the small crystalline ice block, there were in deed worms frozen within it. They all looked at it in silence for a few seconds before the calm was broken by an explosion. The trio rushed to the apartment window and gazed at the street; creatures of all walks of life were marching through the streets, flipping cars, smashing mailboxes and breaking things. There was something odd about them though. Every single rioter was marching in unison. No one was out of step; it was like they were all machines. Leela searched her mind for any memories that might help her and her friends. She could tell that the rioters didn't have brain slugs, and they weren't wearing helmets so mind control was out of the question. The she remembered how Fry had behaved when he was under the parasites' control. He had had a slight mechanicalness about him. His movements were still fluid, unlike the people in the streets, but she had noticed it.

"Worms", she murmured, not peeling her eyes from the streets, "Don't drink the water."

"Why?"

"I think that the water supply is compromised."

Bender began fidgeting nervously and finally said something, "I may have thrown the stick from Fry's corndog out the window."

"And?", Leela rolled her hands, gesturing for Bender to continue his explanation, "Do you have anything else to add?"

"Fat chance stretch pants", he opened his chest cabinet and took out a beer, signaling that he was done being useful to her.

"Okay, the logical place to head is the water treatment facility. It's just outside the city limits."

Leela motioned for them to follow her and she left the apartment. The trio descended the stairs to the street, the walk was long and drawn out. The walk seemed to last forever- each step: an eternity. When they finally reached the street Leela stopped Fry and Bender by the door. She cracked it open and peered outside. Hundreds of the parasite controlled New New Yorkers roamed the streets. Leela slowly pushed the door completely open and crept out into the street. Bender and Fry followed close after her, trying to stay as quiet as possible. They tiptoed along the sidewalk for what seemed like hours before Fry ran out of breath, "I have to stop, I'm going to die of walking"

"You mean exhaustion", Leela corrected in a whisper; she moved behind a parked hover car and sat down, "Only for a minute."

Leela noted the time on her wristomajig and looked around; they were on a street corner and had several nearby shops, buildings and alleyways that they could dart into if they had to. She brought her gaze back to Fry and Bender. Bender looked like he didn't want to be here and was tapping his foot impatiently while Fry was hunched over and panting like a dog. He pinched his shirt and jerked it back and forth. After he saw the strange look she was giving him he explained himself, "It's supposed to cool you off", he paused and lowered his tone slightly, "Learned it back in the twentieth century.

Leela was a bit taken back that Fry had actually worked up a sweat by creeping around the city, but she attributed it to the immense level of stress on him, "Does it work?"

"A bit", he stopped and took one more deep breath, "Okay, I'm ready."

Leela peered over the hood of the car once more to check the street, but was interrupted before she could focus. A giant green fist slammed into the hood of the car just centimeters from her face. She stumbled backwards and struck up a defensive stance. An alien of the same race as Morbo stood on the hood of the car, fists clenched, forehead veins throbbing. He was dressed in average street cloths so Leela assumed that this wasn't Morbo. Fry crawled backwards, keeping his eyes fixed on their assailant. Bender had wondered off to loot a store and wasn't in the immediate area to help Fry and Leela defend themselves.

"Well, I've never fought one of you before, so this should be and experience", she glared at the alien and put up her fists; Fry scrambled to his feet and drew Wisconsin. He pointed the gun at the alien before realizing that any sort of gunfire would give their position away. He quickly stuffed the gun back in his jacket and tried to look like he knew martial arts as well as his partner. The alien snarled and leapt from the car; Leela surged forward and delivered a punch to the alien's gut. He fell from the air, but managed to land on his feet. He swung a fist at Leela; she expertly ducked under it and kicked him in the side. The kick should have shattered his ribs- but it didn't.

"God damn worms are repairing him faster than I can hurt him", Leela stated as she backed up. She put up her hands and blocked another punch from the alien. He finally managed to land a hit on her shoulder, but she shook off the blow and jabbed him in the face. The monster stumbled backwards and fell onto the street. Leela readied herself for another assault, but the parked hover car backed over the alien, then dropped onto the assailant. She looked in the window- while she'd been fighting Fry had hotwired the car.

"Thanks"

Fry rolled down the passenger side window and leaned over the center console so she'd be able to hear him, "Need a lift?"

"I'd appreciate one", Fry opened the passenger door and flung it open, allowing her to climb into the car. That was when Bender came skidding around a street corner, "We need to go now!"

He was carrying an armful of treasure and behind him was a horde of worm-zombies. Fry opened the trunk and swung the car around. He gradually applied speed so that Bender would be able to catch up. Once the robot caught up with the hover car he leapt into the trunk and lit up a cigar, "So long suckers", he waved to the angry citizens and dropped his loot. Leela leaned back and shouted to Bender, "We'll be at the reservoir in no time, be ready."

Bender nodded and prepared himself for the mission ahead. Fry took one hand off the wheel and reached into his coat to make sure that the extra taco was still there- it was. He brought his hand back to the steering wheel and continued flying towards the reservoir. He turned down an alley to stay off the main road. The hover car was immediately greeted by another hover car. It barreled at them at breakneck speeds and Fry jerked back on the wheel. His hover car gracefully lifted up and over the oncoming car. He stepped on the gas and turned back onto the main road. Several other hover cars gave chase and soon there were a dozen hover cars chasing after the three friends. Leela rolled the passenger window down and began firing at their pursuers with her laser pistol. She was able to knock one of the cars out of the sky, but had limited success other than that. Finally the car was flying over the reservoir. Fry dropped the car down to a lower altitude and rolled down the driver side window. He took the taco from his jacket and dropped it into the water supply. He, Leela and Bender watched as the taco fell into the water- filling it with a stomach bug. One of the cars chasing them rammed into the rear of the car and brought Fry back into focus, "Leela, how can we get the water to everyone quickly?"

Leela thought for a moment then shouted, "Blow up the god damn dam!"

Fry dropped the hover car's altitude down so it was just above the surface of the water and firewalled the throttle. The car accelerated towards the dam. As it did Leela reached across the car and opened the driver side door. As the car neared the dam she pushed the 'trunk eject' button- which sent Bender flying –and pushed Fry out of the hover car. She and Fry tumbled through the air for a few short seconds before they collided with the water. The car had been moving so quickly that the water might as well been concrete. She was dazed from the impact and sank for a brief period, only a few seconds, but quickly recovered and swam to the surface. Her ears were greeted by and explosion and the sounds of Fry screaming and thrashing about. She ignored the explosion and swam towards Fry. She grabbed onto him with one arm and tried swimming to shore with the other, but she couldn't. The water was beginning to drain from the reservoir and they were being sucked with it. She pulled Fry in closer so he wouldn't be pulled away and held onto him with both hands, "Get ready Fry."

They slowly began to glide across the surface of the water towards the hole in the dam. Their glide quickly turned to a rush. They were thrown over the edge of the dam and Leela screwed her eye shut. She felt her stomach rise into her throat as she plummeted through the air. She pulled Fry in tighter and squeezed her eye even harder. They finally crashed to the ground, but fortunately for them the water at the front of the wave took the blunt of the impact. They softly slashed into the rapids. Leela took in a deep breath as they went underwater; she and Fry were thrashed about and she quickly lost the breath she'd taken in. Her lungs were compressed and her stomach was beaten as Fry was pulled away from her then pressed back against her repeatedly. She could hardly restrain herself any longer, her lungs screamed for her to take a breath but she couldn't. She finally caved and opened her mouth to suck in a breath, only to have her lungs fill with cool water. She couldn't hold on to Fry any longer, but she had to. She blacked out.

Tall buildings and a moist feeling welcomed Leela back to the waking world. She rolled onto her side and forced herself into a sitting position. She realized that a thin layer of water coated the streets. All around her people were complaining about their stomachs and rushing to the bathroom. _Fry._ She stood up and franticly searched the area for her friend.

"Over here Leela", Bender shouted from behind a parked hover car.

She raced to him; Fry was lying on the sidewalk unconscious. Bender was holding Fry's phone in one manipulator and had the other balled into a fist.

"C'mon, c'mon. Make the field goal", he chanted staring at the phone. Leela knew he was watching the Rose Bowl. She wasn't the least bit surprised thought. Bender was famous for not caring and evidently this was no exception. Leela dropped to her knees and started preforming CPR, but to no avail. She was about to give up when Bender shouted, "No dammit, how did you miss that?! Now how will I get money for hooker bots?"

He threw the phone to the ground, but it collided with Fry's chest instead. He coughed and sat up. Bender chuckled a bit, "Hey Fry."

"What?"

"The landlord just raised the rent on me so I'll need double what you normally pay me."

**In the next installment a ruthless business woman attempts to wipe out the Planet Express.**


End file.
